


OHSHC: The Hosts' Maid is the Shy Type

by J_L_Hynde



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Original Characters - Freeform, Possible Romance?, another unfortunate scholarship student, blackmailing shadow king, cat shaped curse dolls, coming of age story, crazy host club antics, highschool, implied adult themes, multichapter fic, story of loss, whimsical characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-05-22 18:57:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 42,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6090835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_L_Hynde/pseuds/J_L_Hynde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keiko Maeda’s life was a constant cycle of school and work. She believed that the only way to succeed was through hard work and determination; but when she finds herself indebted to no other than Kyoya Ootori she ends up being dragged into the Host Club and discovers that hard work isn’t always enough. Sometimes you also need a few friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Three Toes or Four?

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive Criticism is encouraged. You can't learn if you're not willing to make a few mistakes.

**OHSHC: The Host's Maid is the Shy Type**  
Chapter 1  
_"Three Toes or Four?"_  


* * *

Keiko Maeda wasn't one to get into trouble. She didn't talk back to teachers, she was never late to class, and she always turned in her assignments, often before they were due. She was responsible. Many would say too responsible. The youngest of her siblings she often felt that she was the only one with her head screwed on right.

Of her two siblings, there was her older brother, Ryan, who acted more like a big kid than his actual age of twenty-eight and her twin sister, Kazumi, which she hadn't seen in two years since she had moved away to America to play in some big motion picture. Both of them were unconcerned that there were still things that needed to be taken care of at home; especially since now it was just the three of them. After their parents death Keiko was left to pick up the pieces and as a result she shouldered most of the responsibilities.

While technically Ryan became her legal guardian at the prime age of twelve, he was a bit of an airhead. As a struggling artist, he didn't make nearly as much as he needed to. Their parents had left them a sizeable inheritance, but after some questionable investment choices it had been greatly diminished which left to Keiko scrambling to pick up the slack. As soon as she reached working age she went out and got a waitressing job at a local dinner. The job was crap, but the pay was decent.

It was only because of her job that she was able to afford the ridiculously priced uniform of Ouran Academy after having received an athletic scholarship. Most of the kids were pretentious snobs, but she was determined to keep her head down until graduation, however with a best friend like Eri Sasaki that was impossible.

She was reminded of this as her attention returned to the two adults in the headmaster's office. The deep red carpet had been more interesting than the conversation going on in front of her, but when addressed she had no choice but to lift her head and face the level stare of the man sitting at the other side of the desk.

"Maeda-san, I understand that you were putting up flyers of Teshima-sensei." The headmaster, Yuzuru Suoh, said fingering a stack of previously mentioned flyers. The man had been in a very heated debate with her homeroom teacher, Teshima-sensei, who had been trying to convince him to expel her. The crabby old hag had nearly blown a gasket when he told her none too politely to shut up and now had resigned herself to glaring at the girl over his shoulder.

"Yes Sir," she nodded trying her best to look apologetic.

Headmaster Suoh picked up one of the flyers from the stack. "Is this one of the flyers?"

She stared at the familiar picture. It was obviously Photoshopped to make the woman's bloated face to appear attached to something akin to a rhinoceros. Of course she knew it was a hippopotamus as Eri had told her so. The woman's mouth was opened in a great big yawn which was a change from the constant furrowed brow and piercing glare that she usually bore. To be honest she didn't think it was that bad a picture, but Teshima-sensei apparently felt otherwise. "Yes," she answered.

The man turned the photo around and gave it a wary glance. His lips twitched up ever so slightly. Keiko could tell that he was trying not to laugh. "Look Maeda-san, this photo," he paused clearing his throat, "this photo is…" The headmaster seemed at a loss for words.

"–it's not funny!" Teshima-sensei cut in rounding on the girl. Her chubby face was contorted in barely controlled anger. "Not to mention disrespectful. What on earth would possess you to Photoshop my head onto a…" she grabbed one of the flyers from the stack looking at it, "–a _Hippopotamus_?"

"She made you a Rhinoceros," the man corrected barely keeping the smile off his face.

Keiko shook her head, "No she's right; it's a hippopotamus."

"Really, but I thought –It looks more like a rhino to me; aren't they fatter than hippos?" He asked.

"No. Actually they –uh– have thinner thighs. But you can really tell by the feet; rhinos only have three toes on each foot and that picture has four." She explained. The man turned introspective as he studied the photograph again.

"Wow, I didn't know that."

The woman having grown tired the two debating what animal was actually in the picture, finally erupted. "Oh, what does it matter?" she yelled, "Who cares what animal it is! It doesn't change the fact that you plastered these flyers all over campus." She turned toward the headmaster, "I think we should call her parents in to discuss this."

Keiko frowned. In a normal situation a student's parents would be called for something like this, but she wasn't a normal situation. There were no parents to speak of, not anymore. "You can't my parents died four years ago," she told her.

"Car accident," the man added solemnly.

The teacher had the good sense to look slightly apologetic. "Well, then there has to be at least someone in charge of her," she reasoned.

"My Onii-san, Ryan, takes care of me."

"Oh that's right _the artist_ ," she said with a touch of disdain.

Keiko narrowed her eyes at the teacher. "He's a great artist."

In an attempt to restore peace, Headmaster Suoh moved to appease both sides. "Look, there is no need to call her brother. It's only a first time offence. I'm sure that Maeda-san is remorseful of her actions and that this incident will never be repeated again." He said shooting her a meaningful look.

"No Sir, it won't." She agreed silently breathing a sigh of relief.

The man gave her a small smile addressing the teacher, "Then I'm sure you'll be able to find a suitable punishment for her, Teshima-san."

"Fine." The woman scowled turning toward the first year student, "As I'm sure you heard a club is hosting a dance here on Saturday for all the students. I'm going to be chaperoning that dance and you will be helping out."

_'No, not Saturday!_ ' She mentally groaned. She had plans to go to a concert for one of her favorite groups. Kazumi had sent her those tickets in the mail for their birthday and she had been waiting for this for six months. After all fourth row tickets and back stage passes were hard to come by. "But I can't do Saturday," she protested, "I'm going to a Black Keys concert at the NHK Hall."

"Then I guess that's something you should've thought about before you turned me into a Rhinoceros." Teshima-sensei replied smugly.

"Hippopotamus," the girl corrected.

"Okay." She pointed to the door, "Get out."

Keiko didn't need to be told twice. She hurriedly picked up her book bag and scurried from the headmaster's office, past the secretary busily typing away at her computer and out into the empty corridor. She wasted no time in returning back to the classroom in search of her best friend; who just so happened to be the cause of all this trouble.

If Eri hadn't had insisted on making those pictures and plastering them all over campus, then she probably would've still been able to go to that concert. It made her stomach churn just thinking about it. ' _Oh, why did I agree to take the fall for her?'_ she wondered. Her mind flashed back to when Eri had pleaded with her to _"–just please help me out. I'm desperate."_ All the while giving her the saddest puppy dog eyes she'd ever seen. ' _That's right. I'm a sucker for puppy dog eyes,'_ she remembered.

She paused in the doorway of Class 1-B scanning for a familiar head of short bobbed black hair. The classroom was fairly large with about twenty-four desks divided up into four rows with six desks in each row. Eri's desk was the second to the window in the second row which just happened to be right next to her desk which was next to the window. However upon closer inspection Keiko quickly realized that Eri was not at her desk and that all of her stuff had already been packed up.

Keiko looked around the room noticing that it was mostly empty. There were only a few stragglers left that were packing up their stuff. In the third row she saw Kanako Kasugazaki still packing up her books. Even though they were in the same class, Keiko didn't really know Kanako. Neither of the girls interacted with the other and once Keiko was labeled a commoner by her peers most just brushed her off. It wasn't a malicious act, but often it was just that Keiko was viewed as unapproachable by the other students and many didn't think it was worth the effort to get her talking as there was nothing to gain socially.

"Oi. Kasugazaki-san have you seen Sasaki?" She asked a petite short-haired girl sitting at her desk.

Kanako looked up at the unexpected visitor. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she quickly got over the shock of the honor student having approached her and shook her head. "No, I haven't, but I think I heard her saying something about escaping the cold weather."

Keiko looked at her confused. "What does that mean?"

' _Kawaii._ ' The thought came unbidden to the other girl's mind. It was true though. Keiko wasn't actually full-blooded Japanese, instead being a mix of Japanese and American; this caused her physical appearance to stand out amongst her peers. Instead of the black hair, dark squinted eyes, and flat nose that were rampant in Japan, Keiko had inherited blonde hair and rounded hazel eyes from her mother and her father's high cheekbones and round face. All this combined with her current clueless expression caused Kanako to smile. "I'm pretty sure I have an idea. Are you familiar with the Host Club?"

…

When Kanako had told her about the Host Club she wasn't expecting to walk into a rainforest. Keiko stared blatantly at the foliage and tropical birds that filled the room. She was pretty sure that there was also a chameleon and that it had also just swallowed a bright orange butterfly. ' _Am I dreaming?'_ She wondered. If Kanako hadn't been standing right beside her she would have thought herself to be in an alternate dimension. ' _Mom and Dad are you guys seeing this right now? I think I just found Narnia.'_

Once the initial shock had worn off, Keiko began to look around the room. She saw that there was a group of boys situated throughout the room. Each of them was equally handsome, though varying in appearance and personality. Some of the faces looked familiar and Keiko thought that she had seen one or two of them at some point in her time at the academy. She was pretty sure that those twins were in her French class and that the young burnet boy that Kanako had left to talk to shared her Home Ec. class.

It seemed as if she had been standing there awhile and it wasn't long until one of the boys noticed her presence. The pair of twins looked up excusing themselves from their current conversation. "Hello Miss," one of the Hitachiin twins greeted. It was Kaoru, though she had no way of knowing.

"Why don't you come in? It's no fun watching from the sidelines," Hikaru was quick to follow sliding up next to his brother. They both leaned in simultaneously causing Keiko to take a step back.

"Oh no, it's okay. I didn't want to interrupt." She said with a nervous smile waving them off, "I was only really looking for someone. I was told that she might be here."

The twins leaned back giving her some space. "It's alright you're not interrupting anything, Princess," they responded, "Who, by chance, are you looking for?"

"Sasaki Eri Class 1-B. Kasugazaki-san said that she might be here escaping the cold weather," her eyes wandered past them looking over the room again. ' _Isn't this supposed to be a music room?'_

The brothers smiled to each other. "Of course, Sasaki-hime is a regular here. Come right this way and we'll take you to her," they said slipping their arms around her shoulders and leading her into the room. She tried not to tense at the close contact and remain relaxed as the other girls' eyes fell on her. It has hard though, especially when they passed by a table and she was able to catch their hush conversation.

_"Who's that with Hikaru and Kaoru?"_ One of them whispered.

_"I don't know. I've never seen her around before."_ The other answered, _"Do you think she's a transfer student?"_

_"Could be,"_ another chimed in _, "she does look foreign."_

Keiko sighed. Of those three girls she shared classes with two of them and still they had no idea who she was. She couldn't grudge them for it though. Often the girl had a habit of blending into the background unnoticed and unseen. She didn't like being the center of attention; that was more her sister's area. ' _So their names are Hikaru and Kaoru,'_ the girl glanced up at the two boys, ' _I wonder which one is which?'_

"I'm sorry," she said causing them to look down at her, "but I'm afraid I didn't catch your names. I'm Maeda Keiko."

The brothers grinned. "We're the Hitachiin brothers! Hikaru and Kaoru at your service," they spoke in unison so Keiko was unable to tell which brother was which. It was still too early for her to tell, but from experience she already noticed that the one on her left was far more outspoken than his counterpart. It was the same way with her sister. ' _I guess I'll just call them both Hitachiin-san for now. At least until I can tell them both apart.'_ She decided to herself, though the odds of her returning to the Host Club were slim to none.

"It's nice to meet you both. Thank you so much for helping me." Keiko smiled doing her best to be polite. Inwardly, however, it was a different story. Behind her polite mannerisms and charming smile there was a storm brewing. It had been growing steadily since her meeting with the headmaster and now had almost reached its dew point. It wouldn't be long before her resolve snapped and out came her temper like a ragging dragon all fire and brimstone ready to consume a village; which in this case was her best friend.

Over the years, Keiko had rarely lost her temper. But on the rare occasion that she let it slip the consequences were often times lethal, resulting in both physical and emotional backlash to the unsuspecting person who had been foolish enough to set it off. And for that reason she didn't want anyone else getting caught in the crosshairs; especially when it could be avoided. Right now the only one deserving of her wrath was Eri.

Speaking of which, said girl was currently sitting enjoying a slice of chocolate cake with two third-years, the names of which had escaped her for the moment. The two seniors were dressed in some sort of islander's outfits. The taller darker haired one was even wearing a tropical fruit hat, while the smaller lighter one was decked out with several lei of bright red flowers. Thinking back on it, Keiko remembered that the rest of the boys were clothed in a similar fashion, but she had been otherwise distracted by her surroundings to notice.

Eri had been listening to Mitsukuni Haninozuka, more affectionately known as Honey, chatter on happily about the types of sweets that he liked when the twins had approached their table. "To be honest I always favored pies over cakes. Banana crème is my favorite. I go to this little shop in the Hamamatsucho district. Their banana crème is far superior to anything I could find anywhere else," she told them between bites of cake.

"That sounds really good Ri-chan. Maybe we should check it out sometime, ne Takashi?" Mitsukuni paused in his eating and looked over at his cousin.

The tall senior looked down at the excited boy. "Yeah."

"Hope we're not interrupting anything," said Hikaru.

"–but, we got a guest who was looking for Sasaki-hime," Kaoru finished.

The three teens turned toward the newcomers. Mitsukuni looked at them with a beaming grin. "Hika-chan, Kao-chan it's fine. Sit down. There's still plenty of cake, would either of you like a slice?" He asked. Sometime during this exchange Eri had completely froze and paled considerably.

' _Holy crap. I didn't think she would show up here.'_ She cringed inwardly. Her eyes darted over Keiko uneasily trying to judge just how angry her friend actually was. It was hard to read her emotions; to the third-party observer Keiko looked calm, maybe a tiny bit nervous. However having known the girl since they were both mere babes, Eri had developed a simple list of her body language. If the corner of her mouth was turned up in a half smirk that either meant that she was amused or sad, depending on the side of her mouth that was upturned. If her eyebrows were scrunched together and her mouth was pressed in a firm line then she lost in her thoughts. It was all about subtlety. Her narrowed eyes and demure smile were enough indication that Eri had messed up royally.

The petite girl attempted to smile, but it really was no more than a grimace. "Hi Kei-chan! I didn't ever think that I'd be seeing you here." She laughed nervously taking a rather large bite of her cake, "Would you like any cake? It's really good –Chocolate… but wait you don't like chocolate cake do you?! It doesn't matter. I'm sure we can get you something else. They have lots of other sweets here…" Eri took a deep breath, "Oh I know! You want tiramisu. That's your favorite right? Honey-sempai you do have tiramisu don't you?!"

The blond senior blinked in surprise. "Uh –"

"–It's okay if you don't! I can always go and pick some up. As a matter of fact, I think I'll do just that. _Yes! That's a great idea, Eri._ There's a little bakery a couple blocks from the school, if I run I can be back in fifteen minutes…"

The boys watched in fascination as the normally happy Eri Sasaki stumbled over her words as her voice steadily grew louder and louder. It was slowly starting to attract the attention of the other hosts. "Sasaki-hime it's alright," Karou said trying to pacify her.

"Yeah," Hikaru chimed in, "just calm down. We got some tiramisu here, right Honey-sempai?"

The blond nodded furiously. "Yes that's right! Takashi, go get a plate of tiramisu for Ri-chan," he ordered. The dark haired senior fled from the scene quicker than a gazelle with a cheetah on its heels. Eri didn't even notice that one of the boys had left. She was too busy worrying about how Keiko was going to react.

Throughout the theatrical spectacle Keiko had not utter a word. She had remained passive. Eri was still babbling on incessantly as the twins and Mitsukuni tried rather unsuccessfully to calm her down. By now all eyes had fallen on the group. "Tsk, so troublesome," Keiko sighed. The next words out of her mouth caused everyone to freeze.

"Eri," she spoke softly, "shut up."

All four of them twirled around and stared at the girl. The person standing before them was no longer the shy girl that the twins had met a few minutes ago. No this girl was not that girl. The change was so drastic that the three boys actually took a step away from Eri. Keiko was no longer keeping up false pretenses. The small smile that had graced her countenance had vanished leaving in its stead the harshest glare that they had ever seen. "Don't look so worried. You are making everyone uneasy," she said as a dark, foreboding aura seeped out of her, "Besides it's not like I can kill you in front of witnesses."

' _You're the one making everyone uneasy!'_ The boys thought.

" _Ha. Ha. Ha._ You're so funny Kei-chan!" Eri laughed nervously raising her voice to comical proportions, "I can't kill you in front of witnesses. Good one! _Hehe._ " None of the boys even remotely thought that was a joke.

"Say Hikaru don't we have guests to attend to?" asked Kaoru.

Hikaru turned toward his brother. "That's right Kaoru. How careless of us to forget," he chuckled as they both slowly started to remove themselves from the scene.

"Ah, then we'll just leave this to you Honey-sempai!" They called out before retreating over to the other side of the room, while still keeping a close eye on the situation. The blond senior watched them go. ' _Wait! Kao-chan, Hika-chan, don't leave me alone!'_

He glanced back over at Keiko. She had not moved since she had approached the table. Her eyes met his in that moment and her glare almost completely subsided. "Haninozuka-sempai is it alright if I speak to Sasaki-san alone? It will only take a moment." She said.

"Uh – sure," He nodded, "I'll just go see what happened to Takashi." Happy for an excuse to escape, he quickly followed the twins lead.

Keiko turned her attention back to her friend; seeing that she was visibly relaxing now that she wasn't being glared at. The blonde sighed again this time massaging her temple, "You can sit Ri-chan I'm not going to attack you."

"You're not?"

"I considered it, but what I'm about to tell you is probably going to hurt more than a punch to the face." She said plopping herself down in the chair across from her.

Eri was secretly relieved; however she knew that whatever Keiko had to tell her wouldn't be good news. ' _Just how much trouble did she get into?'_ She wondered. "So how bad was it?" She questioned retaking her own seat.

"I spent the first fifteen minutes listening to Teshima-Sensei rant about the photo and then the next fifteen minutes were spent with her arguing with the Headmaster to expel me. After that, things were resolved fairly quickly," she told her.

"–but you didn't get expelled did you?" Eri asked.

"No."

"Then that's good!" The burnet cheered.

Keiko thought about it. Yeah, she wouldn't be getting expelled, but she would be missing out on a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet the Black Keys. Eri would too, now that she thought about it. She knew that when she came out and said it the other girl would probably go into a spiral, ranting about that witch of a homeroom teacher. In this instance Keiko couldn't say she disagreed. "I can't believe I let you talk me into taking the blame for you," she sighed.

"You had to! I've already been suspended once this term, if I had been caught I would've been expelled." Eri replied.

"There's a trick for getting around that."

"Really? What?" She asked.

Keiko face twitched with annoyance and for a second her anger lashed out in full force. "Stop doing bad things!" she yelled, "Honestly I can't believe you some days! What were you thinking? I mean those photos! You were obviously going to get caught."

"Don't pretend that you weren't worse than I was," Eri bit back, "I'm getting really sick of that _Holier-Than- Thou_ attitude of yours. Need I remind you of all the tricks you've pulled?"

"But I grew out of it!"

"Yeah you did, but now you don't even know how to have fun. You're cold and distant. You hardly ever smile and I mean really smile, not one of those fake ones that you do. Ever since your parents –" She immediately cut off seeing Keiko flinch. Her friend was no longer looking at her in the eye, but focused solely and the polished wooden surface of the table. "I'm sorry;" she apologized, "that was thoughtless of me."

"It's alright. I only came here to tell you that I can't go to the concert on Saturday. There a function or something at the school and Teshima-Sensei wants me to help out." The blonde looked up then staring through her, "I have to go to work. I've already missed my bus, but if I run I can probably still catch the train. See you tomorrow." With that said Keiko stood up from the table and exited the club room before Eri could even get a word in edgewise.

Eri stared after her feeling more or less like a complete failure. She didn't punch her in the face, but she may as well have.

"Ri-chan," Mitsukuni murmured uncertain, "are you okay?"

She looked down at the blond senior, smiling sadly. "I'm just realizing how much I've screwed up this week sempai," she mumbled, "And it's only Monday."

He didn't comment on her swearing. Eri wasn't one who was easily upset. In the months that she had been coming to the Host Club he could say that he knew her well enough to know that in this instance she was trying hard not to show him just how much she was effected by her fight with her friend. But as he stared at her he resolved that he was going to do everything in his power to help. It was the job of a High School Host to make every woman happy and he was going to do just that.

"How can I help?"


	2. Down the Rabbit Hole

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Waring: This chapter contains mild swearing...)
> 
> Fun Fact: Millennium Snow is actually a vampire manga written by Hatori Bisco

**OHSHC: The Hosts' Maid is the Shy Type  
Chapter** **2**  
****_"Down the Rabbit Hole"_

* * *

By the time Keiko had made it back home, she was slightly out of breath. This was partly because she had just walked seven flights of stairs and partly because she had been using more oxygen than necessary muttering under her breath. What Eri had said to her earlier that day had stung more than she cared to admit. However she knew that reason it hurt was because it was true.

She had changed. She knew that and it wasn't something that she liked to think about. Mostly because when she thought about it she was reminded that the catalyst that caused her transformation was the death of her parents. Before she hadn't been the perfect student, of course, she got decent grades and joined several clubs along with being on a few sports teams, but back then Keiko had a thing where she caused more problems than she fixed.

She was without a doubt the worst of her family. She was a terror to her elementary school teachers, an evil mastermind to her sister and a smart ass to her brother. Back then she didn't listen to the word 'no' and she hated being told what to do. All of this often led to her finding herself in situations to where it was only quick wit and the ability to lie that saved her from otherwise hazardous consequences; Eri and Kazumi too since she almost always ended up dragging them in one way or another. All of that changed though.

After her parents' deaths her priorities had to be put in order. Her siblings were spiraling out of control, with her sister a sobbing mess who refused to eat and her brother who had been drowning his sorrows with a bottle was more or less hungover or worse. She didn't have time to really dwell on how she felt about it, but instead found herself being the only one who was trying to piece back together their broken life.

It was during that time that she began to pull away. No one wanted to hear about her problems, her siblings already had enough to deal with and she refused to burden them more. So slowly she started to build up walls, enclosing herself, and feeling safe in the belief that if she locked her emotions in a box and pretended they weren't there then eventually the pain would disappear too. Needless to say, it didn't work. The only thing it did for her was teach her to be a better liar.

' _Eri was right. I have changed,'_ she sighed as she slipped her key into the bolt lock on the door, ' _but the person I am now and the one I was before… There is no going back to that.'_ Keiko paused for a moment on the threshold to regain her composure. She vowed to put the matter out of her mind for now. Come tomorrow she would have to bridge the gap between her and Eri, at least on the surface, before she would be able to focus on anything else. With that in mind she turned the door knob and passed through the entry way.

" _Tadaima,_ " she called out toeing off her shoes and leaving them by the door. Her eyes traveled over the opened spaced room that contained both the living room and kitchen before staring at her brother, who was currently hanging upside down from the ceiling with a camera in his hands.

Ryan was looking a bit confused and also a little red faced as all the blood had been rushing to his head for the last couple minutes. "Oh, Keiko you're home. _Okaeri,_ " He said immediately perking up when he noticed her presence, "I thought school didn't let out until 3:30."

"It's 4:40 now Onii-chan. School has been out for over an hour," she told him setting down her school bag on the coffee table and making her way over to the kitchen. Anyone else would've been caught off guard if they had walked in and saw Ryan hanging from the ceiling, but Keiko just brushed it off as if it was just a normal occurrence; which for her it was. To be honest this was probably one of the more normal things that she had walked in on. "Don't you ever pay attention to the time?" she asked.

"Ah, well you see the wall clock broke this morning. I tried fixing it, but then it caught on fire so I had to put it out –but it's all good because I was able to work it into my current piece!" He explained cheerfully snapping another picture. The camera shutter made another click followed by a bright flash.

She watched him in silence as he took picture after picture of the welded metal sculpture in the middle of their living room. His current piece was a life sized replica of Abraham Lincoln fashioned from old soda cans, scrap metal, of course, one now very broken clock. Ryan's work was all about repurposing and recycling. It might had something to do with the fact that he absolutely refused to throw anything away, even when it was so obviously trash, and that he was sentimental at heart so he tended to bring home items that he felt were abandoned.

Leave an old couch sitting on your curb he would take it. Toss out a rusted old wind chime and he would take that too and then take that broken garden gnome as a bonus. Got a wheelbarrow with a flat tire? Don't throw it away; instead give it to the crazy man going through your trash.

Keiko chuckled to herself as she was reminded of all the times her brother had been chewed out, beaten up, and even arrest once for invasion of privacy. When those instances occurred, and they did occur, he would always argue that " _–if they didn't want someone to take it, then they shouldn't have put it out on the curb."_ She tried to explain to him that people didn't like strangers going through their trash and that doing it was insane. He seemed to understand; at least she thought so, that was until she found out that he had just taken to knocking on peoples' door and asking them if he could dig through their garbage.

Surprisingly, a lot of them agreed then.

The girl was pulled from her thoughts as her stomach gave a small growl. Deciding that she should probably grab something to eat before she left for work, she retrieved a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter and a jar of sliced pickles from the fridge. She laid out two slices of bread on a plate and using the knife that she pull out of the drawer in the kitchen island began to evenly spread peanut butter on them.

"You know, for most high school girls, if they came home and saw their 28-year-old brother hanging upside down over a life sized statue of Abraham Lincoln made out of soda cans, it'd be weird." she said, as she was laying the pickle slices.

Ryan paused; quirking an eyebrow at his sister. "Are you saying I'm abnormal?" Keiko picked up the plate and then walked back into the living room staring at her brother.

"Do I even need to say it?" She mumbled around a mouthful of her peanut butter and pickles sandwich. "Now come down from there before you fall."

"Ah, you worry too much." Ryan shrugged brushing off the comment, "I'm fine. See, I have my leg wrapped around this beam. I won't fall."

It seemed that the Universe had a sense of humor as when those words left his mouth, Ryan enviably lost his grip on the beam and came crashing onto the floor. He landed with an oof followed by a groan. "Told you," Keiko said rather smugly before her voice morphed into one of concern, "Are you okay though?"

Ryan cracked open his eyes staring at his little sister. He tried to play it off like hadn't possibly broken his spine. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Keiko clearly wasn't buying it. She set her sandwich on the coffee table and brushed the crumbs off her hands. "Here," she said walked around him and grabbing one of his arms, "Let me help you up." He didn't protest as she pulled him to his feet; rubbing his sore back as he tried to straighten out. "Are you sure you're okay?" She asked again.

"I'll be fine, Kei. The floor broke my fall," he chuckled weakly.

"Well, good news is that the cameras not broken," she said examining the device that had taken a tumble with her brother and landed somewhere by her feet. "I guess you broke its fall."

"That's good. Those things are expensive to replace."

She nodded, "Not to mention it was Mom's. If you had broken it then she would've gone poltergeist on you."

Ryan inwardly winced remembering how their mother was with her camera equipment. She would've had a coronary if she had walked in on what Keiko had. As a photographer it made sense for her to be that way. Her cameras were practically her babies. He wouldn't be surprised if she even gave them names.

"Wait a sec," he said just realizing something, "If it's 4:40 now…"

"–more like 4:50," she corrected.

"–then why are you getting home so late?" he asked. "It's not like you had practice today because you only have those on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

Keiko turned somber exchanging the camera for her sandwich. "I got held up," she told him.

"Doing what?"

She took a rather large bite out of her sandwich chewing thoughtfully. He knew she was stalling for time. It's what she did when she didn't want to answer a question. "I was called into the headmaster's office," she muttered brushing past him.

"Why?"

"Eri did something really stupid again."

Now it made sense. Had it been four years ago, he wouldn't have questioned Keiko getting asked into the office. But she had changed so much since then that the teachers that would've despised her now sung her praises. It seemed that recently Eri has taken up the torch that Keiko had deserted. "She's been doing that a lot lately," he remarked.

Keiko agreed solemnly. "It's got a lot to do with her parents. Seibei and Nami have been fighting a lot. That's why she usually ends up sleeping over."

"That's a shame," he sighed, "It seems like no one stays together anymore." He was disheartened to hear this about them. They had always been close to the family being longtime friends of with the kid's parents, but after the accident Seibei and Nami had become something of a second set of parents to them. It wasn't uncommon for them to go over to their house for dinner or vice versa, sometimes even spending the night or taking them on little day trips when they could spare to get away from work. His sister wasn't pleased by the news either as she hummed in what appeared to be nonchalant; however to him it was sorely lacking in sincerity.

"As it turns out I'm not going to be using those concert tickets. Something came up and I have to work that day," she told him plainly, "So I was wondering if you wanted to use them. Maybe take that girl you're seeing."

Ryan stopped fiddling with the camera in his hands and stared at his little sister in shock. He knew that she had been looking forward to this concert since she had gotten the tickets in the mail 6 months ago. She had made it specifically clear that she would on no uncertain terms be working that day, going so far as to clear it with the diner four months ahead of time. "Kei," he said unsure of how to continue.

"It's okay Onii-chan I insist. If I can't use them I would much rather you take them than having them go to waste. Just bring me be back a signed tee-shirt and I'll be happy." She replied giving him a small smile, "I have to get ready for work but I'll leave them on the fridge if you decide to take them." She didn't give him any time to respond as she hurried up the stairs to her bedroom leaving Ryan standing there watching her go.

…

The rest of the week passed fairly quickly. Eri had been sucking up to her since the incident on Monday, even though Keiko had assured her that she wasn't mad. She still had Saturday off and had every intention of sleeping in, that was until her cell phone rang at 4:30 that morning waking her up. Rolling over she silenced the annoying chirping taping her finger on the screen and laying the phone on her ear.

"Hello?" she mumbled not opening her eyes.

"Hiya my most special-est, most prettiest, twin!" The voice on the other line chirped in a voice too bubbly and happy for that time of day. Keiko groaned lifting the phone from her ear wondering why Kazumi had to call her so early. "Look I know you're probably still asleep, but I just wanted to be the first to wish you a Happy sixteenth Birthday," the other girl continued as if hearing Keiko's unspoken thought.

"Happy Birthday to you too," she grumbled, "Sorry, I can't muster up as much enthusiasm as you so early in the morning."

"It alright, I know you've never been much of a morning person." Kazumi laughed , "So are you excited? The Black Keys concert is today. I wish I could've come with you, but I couldn't get the time off. You better take a lot of pictures with the band."

"Yeah. I'll do that." She agreed making a mental note to tell Ryan to bring a camera with him when he went. "So what do you have planned today? Anything big?"

"No not really. My agent was going to discuss some new movie opportunities over lunch. I think she wants ask me about playing the part of Chiyuki for the sequel to _Millennium Snow_ after I did the first one and it was such a hit." She told her, "Then my boyfriend was going to take me out to dinner, nothing too fancy."

Keiko frowned. "You're still dating that skateboarder?" She had nothing personal against Kazumi's current boyfriend. He was physically very attractive and the only thing she could fault him with that at times he was all too well aware of that fact. The few times she had talked to him over skype with her sister he was charming and funny, but she just couldn't get past the fact that he insisted on using words like: ' _dude, bro, sup,'_ and possibly the worst of all, ' _bae.'_ In all honesty he sounded like the male version of one of the valley girls.

"Don't use that tone," Kazumi chided hearing the familiar repugnance that colored her sister's words every time they spoke about Tyler, "I already know you don't like him."

"That's not it." She disagreed, "He just doesn't seem all that smart." Kazumi huffed childishly on the line and Keiko rolled her eyes at her sister's behavior. Since when had she become the older twin? "Look I don't want to get in a fight with you. I'm glad you two are dating and I happy that he's taking you out to dinner for your birthday. That's actually really sweet of him."

"You sound so surprised," Kazumi scoffed.

"Again not my intention," Keiko told her sincerely. That seemed to placate her twin and the two talked a few minutes about what was going on in their lives before Kazumi let her go promising to call back tomorrow evening after Keiko had gotten off work. She rolled over on her back staring up the ceiling.

There would be no going back to sleep now. She was already wide awake. Picking up her phone again she took another glance at the time. ' _Well I might as well go for a run,'_ she thought climbing down from the top bunk and landing on the fuzzy floor rug. She walked across the room to hers and Kazumi's dresser pulling out a pair of sweat pants and sports bra. Quickly exchanging her sleep shorts and loose tee-shirt she pulled all her hair up into a slick ponytail and pinned her fringe bangs back out of her eyes.

It would still be pretty chilly outside so she grabbed her warm hoddie for good measure and then her MP3 player putting the ear buds in her ears. She walked down stars to the kitchen making sure to drink two large glasses of water. Keiko knew that Ryan wouldn't probably be up until 9:00 or 10:30 at the latest, but thought to make a pot of coffee anyways for when she got back.

She started out at a steady pace, quickly finding her rhythm. Having put on her running playlist she listened to the familiar lyrics of _Hate on Me_ by Jill Scott. Her mind began to clear as she focused solely on her feet pounding on the pavement.

Keiko had always found running to be very therapeutic. When she was stressed, sad, or angry she would go for a run and immediately feel better afterwards. It didn't take long for her to lose track of the time and the distance. It was only when she felt the telltale grumbling of her stomach that she stopped and noticed the sun just creeping over the horizon.

_'Shop owners would be opening their stores soon.'_ She thought looking around at her surroundings. Keiko recognized the neighborhood she was in. It wasn't that far from the cemetery that her parents were buried. She hadn't make a conscious decision to come this way, but figuring that she was so close she might as well pay them a visit.

When the accident first happened, Keiko had visited her parents' graves almost every day; however as time passed the visits became less and less. Now she was lucky to find time to go there once a month. But walking through the gravesite was serene, especially at that time of day because she was only living soul there. The cherry blossom trees were only beginning to bud and it wouldn't be long until the flowers were in full bloom. She stopped under a thick trunk of one of the trees looking at the stone shrine that was her parents.

Keiko could tell that someone else had been there recently. The plot was swept clean of dead leaves from the autumn and the small vase that would normally had had been filled with dead flowers was replaced with a fresh bouquet of tiger lilies. She reached out and brushed her fingers over one of the flowers with a small smile.

Her mother had always loved tiger lilies.

Next she moved her fingers along the engraving in the stone tracing out the letters. Her mother's name, Kiersten Maeda, was written in English in bold Algerian font. Keiko traced each individual letter of her mother's name before turning to the Kanji symbols that were her fathers, Naozane Maeda. She leaned back on her heels once she was done.

Keiko swallowed thickly looking at the two names. "Hey Mama and _Chichi,"_ she greeted solemnly, "So Kazu and I are turning sixteen today. I know time flies. It seemed like yesterday that we were both little girls fighting over stuffed animals. Now Kazu's an up and coming actress and I'm going a prestigious private school."

She looked over at the flowers again. "I see that Ry has been to see you two recently. That's good. Sorry I haven't been around. I've been pretty busy with school and working at the diner. I just finished with the finals for my first term. I think I did pretty well," she said moving to sit down in front of the grave.

Keiko spoke quietly as she recounted her life since her last visit. She knew that in all likelihood she was only talking to herself. But she didn't care. Sometimes it was nice to pretend, at least for a little while, that nothing had changed and everything was the way that it was.

"–I don't really know what to do. I want to help Eri, but I don't know how. She's going through a tough time so I'm trying to be understanding," she explained, "maybe she was right though. Maybe I am pushing people away, but I can't be the person that she wants me to be because that's not me. I've changed. I have responsibilities now and I can't goof off anymore."

She was quiet as she thought about what she just said. Keiko knew what her parents would've said. She had heard them have the same conversation with her brother while he was in college. Back then Ryan had become a lot more serious, always studying for his bar exam. When he came home for break they had taken him aside and had a long thoughtful discussion and gave him a piece of advice that she had overheard.

_"Just because you're trying to reach your goal and become a lawyer, doesn't mean you have to be focused on that 24/7. You can have some fun. Live in the moment. Because before you know it, it'll be gone and you can never get it back."_

Except for that part about being a lawyer, it was still a relevant piece of advice. Of course Ryan did end up dropping out of law school and pursuing the arts. Something that enraged her grandparents, but Keiko knew that their parents would've been proud that he was following his dream and doing what he actually wanted to do.

She looked back at the names with a smile feeling the weight that she had been carrying all week lighten. "But that doesn't mean I can't have fun," she said, "I get it now. Thanks. I feel a lot better now." Keiko stood up and brushed some of the dirt off her pants. Her legs were a bit stiff but the run home should fix that. She looked back down at the headstone, "I miss you. I wish you were both here to have this talk in person."

Then she said a brief farewell and began her run back home.

…

After a much needed shower, Keiko felt completely refreshed. She quickly dressed herself in a snug pair of faded blue skinny jeans and a loose maroon and grey long-sleeved shirt. Her hair was still damp, so instead of putting it up she let it hang limply past her shoulders and down her back as it dried. She was currently drinking her second cup of coffee and frying up omelets when Ryan finally stumbled into the room.

Groggy and still half asleep, he grumbled a greeting to her as he poured himself his own cup of joe. He had a serious case of bedhead made even worse when he ran his fingers through it and scratched at the stubble on his jaw. "Eggs are almost ready," Keiko told him.

Ryan glanced at the contents of the frying pan. "What's in 'em?" He asked leaning up against the counter.

"Tomatoes, cilantro, bacon bits, mushrooms, red onions, and some pepper jack cheese," she answered flipping one of the omelets and sliding it on to a clean plate, "There's some left over rice in the fridge too if you want it. It just needs to be heated up first." Keiko handed him the plate and turned back to the other omelet flipping it once and then sliding it onto another plate. She turned off the stove and grabbed the frying pan running water in it and letting it soak in the sink before she sat down at the kitchen table next to Ryan.

He hummed in appreciation as he took his first bite. "Oh, wow," he moaned, "this is amazing Kei."

"Thanks. I learned how to make it in Home Ec. Class on Wednesday," she told him.

"Good to see that school of yours is paying off. So anything you want to do today before you head over to the school?" He wondered.

"Not really. I don't have to be at the school until 4:30 to start setting things up. Hideki has to work at the shop today, so I was going to hang out around here and do some homework," Keiko replied thoughtfully.

"So your boyfriend isn't coming over today?" He questioned making sure.

"Well I'll probably see him tomorrow, but today no. It should just be me and you."

Ryan nodded. "Okay so how 'bout after I get dressed you and I go out to the mall and visit that book store you like? You can pick something out," he suggested.

Keiko immediately perked up. "Really?"

"Yeah, sure. I didn't get you a gift yet because I didn't know what you would want and I sent Kazumi money, which is probably the last thing she needs. So do you want to go?" he laughed.

Keiko chuckled as well, "I'd love to."

…

When four o'clock rolled around Keiko had said her goodbyes to her brother and hurried out the door. They had had a good time at the mall. Ryan had bought her two books, one an autobiography of a famous Jazz musician and a historical novel set in the Victorian era. They had even stopped by the arcade and played a couple rounds of skee-ball and _Dance Dance Revolution_. It was exactly the kind of low key, laid back day that she wanted. She had almost forgotten about concert altogether and part of her was actually a little glad she wasn't going.

Something Kazumi never understood was her sister's desire to be as laid back and relaxed as possible. The older twin had a flare for theatrics. She always wanted their birthday to be this huge event that would get better and better with each year. As kids Keiko often went along with the elaborate birthday parties, but more often than not she found herself wanting to be somewhere a little less noisy. It surprised her when her sister told her pretty laid back plans for her sixteenth birthday because to Kazumi turning sixteen had always been pretty big deal.

And while the concert would've definitely been a lot of fun, not to mention a once in a lifetime experience, Keiko was a happy that she wouldn't have her ear drums vibrating in her ears because of the loud speakers.

It took her a little over thirty minutes to get to the school. She was running a little late. Knowing Teshima-sensei the woman was bound to hold that against her. It didn't take her long to find the large functioning ballroom in the middle of the school. There was a flurry of movement as caterers and florists, teachers and other facility members, and chefs and orchestra members all prepared for the event. Keiko quickly picked her homeroom teacher out of the crowd and made her way to her, if not a bit reluctantly.

The stout grumpy teacher was talking rapidly with a young raven haired man with glasses and holding a black notebook. He was pointing to different areas of the room as he talked and Teshima-sensei nodded. Keiko thought that he looked vaguely familiar; however she was unable to place a name to the face. She approached them cautiously, not wanting to interrupt.

"The orchestra is going to be set up by the grand staircase and leave this area open for the dance floor," the man said. He scribbled something down and pointed over to the wall, "The food and drink tables can be set up over there."

Keiko stopped a short distance away and waited patiently for them to finish their conversation. It was only a few minutes before Teshima-sensei turned and noticed her there. "Ah Maeda-san you're late," the woman said with a scowl.

The girl didn't argue with her instead appearing slightly apologetic. "Sorry Sensei. I lost track of the time," she said.

The teacher pursed her lips clearly not buying the excuse before she turned her attention back at the matter at hand. "Well you're here now," she said before making introductions, "Ootori-san this is the student I was telling you about. She's going to be helping out today. Maeda-san this is Ootori Kyoya. He is organizing this event. He'll tell you what to do."

Keiko watched as Teshima-sensei quickly made her exit leaving her standing in front of a complete stranger. The girl glanced back over at him. He seemed to not notice her obvious discomfort or was choosing to ignore it as he continued to scribble something down in that note book of his. "Um… I'm Maeda Keiko," she told him shifting her weight nervously.

Kyoya looked up giving her an appraising glance.

"So what is it you want me to do?" She asked.

He adjusted his glasses and closed the notebook. "Talk to the caterer. She'll show you what to do and give you a uniform for later tonight," his eyes scanned over her again. He obviously wasn't impressed with her style choices. "She the one with the clipboard talking with the orchestra," he told her gesturing to the grand staircase where a woman was addressing a fairly large group of people.

Keiko looked past him picking the woman out of the crowd. "Okay. Thanks," she said letting him get back to whatever he was writing in the notebook of his. Kyoya nodded politely and brushed past her. She watched him as he opened the book again and continued on writing.

_'Weird,'_ she shrugged.

The caterer, Ms. Devereux, was a lot friendlier than the boy had been. It didn't take long for Keiko to catch on to what needed to be done and do it. She was quick fall into rhythm with the rest of the staff and time passed fairly quickly after have reverting to her 'worker bee mode'.

Soon the party was in full swing. There were beautiful melodies that filled the room from the twenty piece orchestra and all the partygoers were dressed in expensive ball gowns and suits that were obviously more that Keiko could ever afford in her life. She felt sorely out of place in her black slacks, starch white shirt, and black tie. Luckily for her she wasn't the only one wearing a waiter's uniform so she wasn't as out of place as she felt.

Keiko was given the job of passing out champagne flutes of sparkling cider to the students. It was somewhat of a mind numbing job and she couldn't help her mind wander as she did it. Really the girl wanted nothing more than to be at home in her room doing homework or curled up with a book. Instead she was forced to count the seconds until she would be allowed to leave.

_'Eri so owes me for this,'_ she thought forcing a smile on her face as she approached a group of giggling girls.

…

As the night wound down to a close, Keiko was exhausted. Both mentally and physically spent. Her face was hurting from smiling so much and she wanted nothing more than to take off her shoes and massage her aching feet. She was rounding up all the half empty glasses of cider and placing them on a large silver tray before she could go home.

Ms. Devereux approached her with a smile. The woman picked up one the champagne flutes and set it on the tray. "Thank you," Keiko said politely.

"You did very well today," she told her, "You're a hard worker."

"It's not anything I'm not used to. I typically work at a diner after school, so carrying large trays of food and drinks is second nature to me," she shrugged hoisting up the large silver tray and resting it on her shoulder.

"Well that's refreshing to hear. Most of these kids wouldn't know the first thing about hard work. They're too…"

"–busy learning out to pilot Daddy's jet?" Keiko supplied jokingly.

Ms. Devereux laughed. "That's probably the case," she agreed, "Okay, so take this tray back to the prep room and then you're free to go. It was a pleasure meeting you Maeda-san."

Keiko gave her a genuine smile. "Likewise, Ms. Devereux," she nodded shaking her hand then brushing past her with the tray. The girl didn't notice the two pairs of eyes following her as she exited out the ballroom and into the corridor.

It was fairly dark as the ceiling lights had been turned off allowing the hallway to be bathed in moonlight from the windows fortunately allowing her to be able to see where she was walking. Everything was quiet, almost serene, as she shuffled along carefully balancing the tray. Keiko began to softly hum an old David Bowie song to herself.

_'It wasn't the worst birthday ever,'_ she concluded after reviewing her day in her head. In fact, it had actually been a pretty good day. Helping out at the school wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be. She met some cool people, got to eat some fancy finger foods, and was able to make it through the party with no major hiccups…

_'Ah!'_ The girl internally screamed as she felt her feet coming out from under her. It all happened so fast that she didn't even have time to evade or warn the person coming her way before she tripped and all the champagne flutes went hurtling through the air, spilling cider everywhere before they fell to the floor each breaking with a deafening shatter. Keiko managed to catch herself before she fell face first into the shards of glass, but it was already far too late as the damage had already been done.

She looked up at the person who had been unfortunate enough to be drenched in cider. Her eyes widened comically at the sight of a very peeved and extremely dangerous looking Kyoya. The boy's glasses glinted in the moonlight as he slowly turned his head to look at her.

Keiko opened her mouth, an apology trying to make its way past her lips. However the two words out of her mouth weren't _'I'm sorry'._ No. What fell out of Keiko's mouth was much less dignified as she slipped into English without even realizing it.

_"Fuck me."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please feel free to give me your thoughts, suggestions, or any ideas in the comments. Commenting helps me know what is good and what isn't.


	3. Thing One and Thing Two

**OHSHC: The Host's Maid is the Shy Type**  
Chapter 3  
 _"Thing One and Thing Two"_  


* * *

Kyoya was a mess. His dark hair was still dripping with cider as he tried to come to grips with what just happened. The boy turned his head toward the blonde girl who was cowering away from him. She opened her mouth uselessly something trying to make its way out.

_"Fuck me,"_ she breathed.

It took him a moment to understand what she was saying. He brushed some of his hair from his face and looked at her curiously. _'Strange choice of words,'_ he thought.

Suddenly Keiko seemed to snap out of whatever shocked cowardly stupor she was in. "Oh, I'm so sorry. Are you okay? You're not hurt are you? I didn't see you there- gosh that's a lot of glass- and I tripped… an-and- and your suit is ruined. Oh my god, I'm so sorry… I'll get this cleaned up and I promise I pay for all this," she rambled bowing deeply.

Kyoya's brow rose questionably. "With what money?" He asked. The girl froze, her facing turning white as a sheet. "You're an honor student. You go to this school on a scholarship and you can't even afford to buy more than two uniforms. This suit is a Brioni Vanquish II, the cost of which is more that you've probably ever seen in your life. Not to mention the champagne flutes are 7500 yen a piece and that uniform you're wearing isn't anything to sneeze at," he explained coolly.

Keiko shifted nervously. _'How much could that be? I know there about twenty, twenty-two broken flutes. At 7500 yen a piece… multiply those numbers together is about… 165000 yen plus the suit… its brioni so it probably around 4.3 million yen… so that brings the total around 4.5 million yen plus the uniform I'm wearing…'_ She trailed off hopelessly. Keiko felt like she was going to throw up. There was a cold sweat that broke out on her skin as she tugged on her ponytail nervously.

"I don't suppose you could accept a payment plan?" She mumbled. The blonde stared up at him hopefully as if Kyoya was holding her life in his hands. In a way he was. The older boy sighed and adjusted his glasses. The girl had worse puppy dog eyes than Tamaki did.

"On Monday be at Music Room 3 by 2:45 and we'll discuss your means of payment," he told her straightening his suit and adjusting his tie, "Be sure to be on time. I hate when people are late."

Keiko's face brightened considerably. "Oh thank you. Thank you. Thank you… I'll be there. I promise," she replied quickly bowing again.

Kyoya spared her a brief annoyed look as he brushed past. Calling out over his shoulder, he added as an afterthought, "Find a broom and clean this mess up. We don't need anyone cutting themselves."

The blonde looked at the shards of glass again and nodded vigorously even though she knew that he couldn't see her. "Sure thing," she called out, "Thank you again Ootori-san. You won't regret it." Keiko watched him shuffled down the hallway before she sighed and looked at the mess of broken glass around her feet. Her eye brow arched quizzically when she noticed a banana peel lying innocently in the heap.

_'Who would be eating bananas out here?'_ she wondered picking up the yellow peel and setting it on the silver tray. Keiko turned her head in both directions looking down the corridor as if the culprit would make himself/herself known. Seeing no one she shrugged and began walking down the dark corridor again in search of the nearest supply closet.

Two figures stepped out the shadows once she left. The smaller one crouched down and picked up a shard of one of the broken flutes. Turning to his companion, he smiled mischievously. The taller figure didn't say anything being preoccupied with eating a banana.

…

When Monday inevitably rolled around, the Host Club was proceeding as normal. Mitsukuni was plowing through a triple layer strawberry short cake as Takashi watched and Tamaki and the twins were trying to convince Haruhi to wear a frilly Victorian dress for their next cosplay. The girl, however, was hearing none of it.

"I said no!" She yelled.

"Aw, but Haruhi it would look good on you," the twins whined shoving the mass of white lace in her face.

"Please," Tamaki pouted, "It would make Daddy so happy." His eyes were shining in hopeful anticipation. The twins came up alongside him gave the small burnet their saddest puppy dog eyes. Haruhi stared at their faces causing their anticipation to grow. The boy's smiles grew when they saw the briefest crack in her resolve. _'Finally,'_ they cheered, however they spoke too soon.

Haruhi turned her head away from the three idiots. "No chance in hell," she huffed. The three hosts groaned and instantly took off in another round of whining, pleading, and pouting.

Kyoya sighed turning his attention back to the screen of is laptop. He was able to ignore the racket coming from the other hosts, for the most part at least, until the noise became too loud and he would look over at them with mild irritation. That was usually enough to quite them for a couple minutes.

His eyes scanned the student file that he had received in his email earlier that morning. _'Maeda, Kieko Evangeline… Age sixteen… Birthday February 29… Blood type AB. Her grades have always been average, but in the last four years her GPA has increased exponentially now capping at about a 3.54. She plays three varsity sports; track, basketball, and softball. Attending Ouran on an athletic scholarship…Parent's names are Naozane Madea and Kiersten Maeda, more commonly known as Kiersten Langford. Both are deceased as of four years ago. This corresponds with the shift in her grades…'_

Kyoya studied the photograph of her student I.D. Her straight blonde hair was pulled up out of her face into a neat ponytail, but she let her short fringe bangs cover her forehead and fall partly in her eyes. She dressed in a dark blue blazar and white shirt with a bright red neck tie and matching red plaid skirt. Her face isn't completely expressionless, yet Kyoya couldn't say that she had much of an expression to begin with. She wasn't exactly smiling, but she wasn't frowning either; instead her mouth as pulled up into a half smirk. It was obvious that she wasn't full Japanese.

He scrolled a little further down the page. ' _Ah, she lives in the Hamamatsucho district,'_ he read making a mental note to check the address out when he found the time. The time on the clock read _2:40_. Kyoya stood up from the table he had been sitting at and made his way over to the rest of the hosts.

"If the three of you are done, there is club matter that needs to be discussed," he said adjusting his glasses.

Everyone's attention turned to him. The twins let the dress fall to their sides and hang limply between them. Tamaki and Haruhi stared at the boy with interest, while Mistukuni chewed thoughtfully on his cake and Takashi tilted his head ever so slightly in question. Haruhi was the first to speak.

"What do you mean, Kyoya-sempai?" She asked.

"There is going to be a student helping out with the club activities today. She's repaying a personal favor and will be working here until further notice," he explained.

The Host Club members let out an involuntary shiver. Who in their right mind would ask the shadow king for a favor? Haruhi frowned knowing that the girl, whoever she was, had probably found herself in the same position that she herself was in. _'I already feel sorry for her,'_ she sighed.

"Who is she?" one of the twins asked.

"She's a student from Class 1-B. Like Haruhi, she is an honor student and attending here on an athletic scholarship. She'll be arriving any moment now so I'll let her make the formal introductions," he replied.

As if on cue, the door to the club room cracked open causing the seven hosts to turned to the entrance. The blonde girl stuck her head through the door way and eyed them nervously. Then swiftly maneuvering though the door she closed it softly behind her. "Sorry I didn't mean to interrupt," she said with a sheepish smile.

The host eyed her with interest taking in her appearance. Her long blonde hair was pulled up into a neat ponytail that she tugged on idly. She looked like any other student at Ouran. The yellow uniform was tidy and clean, devoid of wrinkles or dirt, and the bright red ribbon was tied in a perfect bow under her collar. It was only when their eyes fell on her shoes, a pair of worn black sneakers, that they noticed any difference at all.

Mitsukuni was the first speak, jumping up from the sofa and rushing toward her.

"Hi Kei-chan!" He greeted grabbing the girl's arm and dragging her further into the room, "I didn't know you were gonna help out with the club. How cool is that? That means you'll get to hang out with me, Takashi, and Usa-chan! We can eat cake together! I was just having some strawberry shortcake; do you want a slice?"

Keiko was a little dazed tripping over her own feet. She barely managed to catch herself from toppling over and knocking into the bubbly third-year as they came to an abrupt stop. The older boy stared up at her hopefully; brimming with childlike enthusiasm. He reminded her so much of Eri's little brother that she was tempted to call him Yukine.

_'Wait… did he just say something out helping out at the club?'_ She mused. "No thank you, Haninozuka-sempai. I'm not a really big sweets person," she told him.

The blond wasn't deterred in the slightest. "Call me Honey," he smiled.

"Honey-sempai," she mumbled slowly the name sounding funny on her tongue. She glanced over at the other hosts who had been watching the entire exchange. Her eyes fell on two familiar redheads. "Hello again Hitachiin-san," giving them a friendly smile before eying Kyoya warily, "I'm not late, right?"

The raven-haired boy adjusted his glasses. "No, you're right on time," he drawled. Keiko breathed a sigh of relief. She slowly began to relax; ' _maybe this just might work out,'_ she thought optimistically.

Whatever glimmer of hope was quickly smashed, however, when an exuberant blond, who was not the cute childish Honey-sempai, materialized in front of her. Keiko jumped back as the boy quite literally appeared out of thin air. "So you're another one of the audacious commoners attending the academy?" He asked excitedly leaning far too close for comfort.

The way he worded the question made her feel like she would be offended, if it wasn't for the happy gleam in his eyes and his jovial tone that reminded her so much of her brother she would've been. But Keiko had grown used to this kind of behavior. "I'm not sure I would phrase it like that," she spoke quietly.

"You're a hero to other poor people. Someone like you breaking out of your social stratus and coming to this school… it's the dream. _From rags to riches,_ my how poetic..."

The boy wasn't listening anymore. Keiko didn't say a word as he continued his spiel, far too caught up in whatever romanticized impression he had of the working class, instead she slowly started to back away from him. She looked over at the other host members, hoping that maybe they would provide some clue as to best handle the situation. Of course none of them were any help. The twins had gone back to pestering Haruhi about the dress, Mitsukuni had returned to his cake with Takashi following close behind, and Kyoya… well let's just say that the raven haired boy's expression gave nothing away as he stood there watching the scene take place and making no move to stop it.

"–And just think, now there will be another girl around. Maybe your womanly influence will rub off on Haruhi and she'll start wearing dresses and having slumber parties and painting her nails! Oh that would make Daddy so happy to see his daughter and niece getting along so well…"

Keiko frowned at those words. It seemed that the conversation switched from innocent curiosity to something else entirely. _'Who does this guy think he is?'_ she grumbled under her breath.

"Hate to ruin any of your deluded fantasies, but I'm not really the dresses and slumber party type. I'm strictly a jeans and tee-shirts kind of girl. And furthermore, when did I become your niece? And why do you want to see that girl," she gestured at Haruhi, "in a dress? Are you some kind of pervert?"

Surprised by her outburst, the other members of the host club paused in what they were doing and turned to her in shock. Keiko shifted nervously under their gaze; quickly realizing that she had said something she shouldn't have. Tamaki seeming to have missed the whole 'girl' comment looked horrified with the notion of being called a pervert. "Y-you think I'm a…" he stuttered.

"Uh…"

"– _Tono!_ You're missing something important right now," the twins chimed in.

"Kei-chan just called Haru-chan a girl," Mitsukuni explained around a mouthful of cake.

The blond's eyes widened, while Keiko looked between them confused. "What the big deal?" She asked. "If she wants to wear a boy's uniform then… wait am I supposed to think she's a guy?" The blank stare she was receiving was answer enough. "Oh…" she mumbled as realization dawned on her, "I didn't realize. I'm sorry, shouldn't have blurted it out like that."

The room was silent with tension. Keiko could feel it eating at her as she fought the urge to cringe away from the spotlight. She really hated being the center of attention. A laughable fact really because of who she was and who her family was she had been a topic of much interest. Her mother, the sole heir to the Langford family fortune, disowned when she married her father, a man who later became a well-known and beloved author, which ended in their untimely deaths leaving thousands of eyes to fall on her and her siblings. Also Kazumi's budding career was bringing even more attention, though most hadn't really put it together yet. She should have been used to it by now, but really she only wanted to back out those doors and find a quiet place where she could breathe.

Fortunately for her, Haruhi stepped forward and smiled reassuringly. "Sorry about them. They can be a bit intense sometimes. I'm Fujioka Haruhi, by the way, and that blond weirdo is Suoh Tamaki."

"Maeda Keiko, nice to meet you," she replied returning the other girl's smile gratefully. It was becoming increasingly apparent that Haruhi may be the only sane one in this so called Host Club.

Haruhi paused thinking it over. Where had she heard the name before? "Maeda? That sounds so familiar…"

"–It is a popular name," Keiko told her.

"Oh wait, do we have fourth period together on Tuesdays?" Haruhi asked.

"Home Economics class?"

"That's the one!"

"Yeah I sit more towards the back."

"I'm closer to the windows. That omelet they taught us last week…"

" –was delicious. Oh I know. I made that on Saturday and my brother had a food-gasm…"

The two girls continued to discuss the recipes they were learning in class completely clueless to the six boys gawking at them. It was an unusual sight to see. Except for her guests, Haruhi wasn't that vocal when dealing with other people, but was they were seeing now was different. The conversation wasn't forced or courteous. Both girls were relaxed with happy smiles on their faces and a warm sunny glow seemed to radiate from them causing the other hosts to stop and do a double take.

_'Cute…'_

Even though the two girls were only talking about food, in that moment they had both unknowingly and unintentionally caused the male hosts to blush. Some were more noticeable, like the twins and Tamaki who cheeks were turning a soft pink, while others were not, like Takashi, Mitsukuni, and Kyoya who had turned their attention away from the girls focusing on something else entirely.

…

The blonde girl sighed as she made another batch of commoner's coffee. Really she didn't understand all the hype. It was just instant coffee; something that she, a coffee purist, had never been able to stomach. Why all these kids were treating it like it was water from the fountain of youth was beyond her.

There was some irony in her current situation, however, she realized as she carried a heavy tea tray out to the guests. Here she was passing out coffee and sweets like she did almost every day at the diner. When Kyoya told her that she was going to help out at the club to repay her debt, this had been the last thing on her mind. It seemed that no matter what she always seemed to get stuck waiting on someone.

"Oi, Blondie. We need some more commoner's coffee over here," one of the twins called.

Keiko turned and made her way over to her table with a practiced smile. Two years of dealing with less than pleasant costumers had given her the ability to do so when she would otherwise want to ring their necks. The two Hitachiin twins were starting to grate on her last nerve. It didn't take long before the twin devils had come up with that ridiculous nickname and they were using it constantly. The worst part, however, was that they both seemed to know how much it irked her and neither of them actually cared; in fact one of them even seemed to enjoy it.

"Here you go," she chirped cheerfully. "Is there anything else I can get for you Hitachiin-san?"

The two brothers regarded their new club member curiously. She was proving to be an interesting toy. Like Haruhi, Keiko wasn't prone to emotional outburst as a result of their teasing. In fact she didn't show much emotion at all. If not for the superficial smiles and the cheerful demeanor that was so obviously fake that they both saw through it instantly. That was the main reason they kept calling her 'Blondie' because every time they said it she always twitched in annoyance and a little crack appeared in her mask.

"No thanks, Blondie," Kaoru said before Hikaru cut in.

"But you can play a game with us…"

Keiko arched a brow and looked around her at the room full of customers. "I'm kind of busy right now," she told them honestly.

"It won't take long," Kaoru assured her taking the tray from her hands and setting it on the table, while his brother rested his arm on her shoulder and steered her away from the table.

She stiffened at the close contact and almost broke her charade to tell them that she didn't want to play their stupid game and to stop touching her immediately. But instead Keiko was able to rein in her annoyance at the twins and asked. "What kind of game?"

Both of the brothers smirked and shouted theatrically, "The Which One of us Hikaru Game!" At their announcement the whole room seemed to go quite. Then like a bunch of cats who had heard the can opener, the girls came running and surrounded the three eager to watch how the game would turn out.

Keiko stared blankly at them before looking at Hikaru and asking, "What are the rules?"

"Simple really…"

"-We put on hats and switch places a few times and all you have to do is point to the one you think is Hikaru…"

" _And the loser gets a punishment of course…"_

Keiko paused thinking it over. "So let's see if I got this right. All I have to do is point and if I win I can make you two do whatever, but if I lose I have to do whatever you two want?"

They nodded.

"Alright, I'll give it a go," she agreed stepping away from them so she could face them properly. The brothers quickly arranged their hats to cover up their hair parts, while the customers watched the scene with baited breath. Keiko payed close attention as the two began to switch places, but soon she was unable to tell which brother went where and it was then that they both stopped moving.

" _Now which one of us is Hikaru?"_

The blonde studied each brother closely. Looking at their faces she noticed slight irregularities. For example the one on her right had a slightly wider nose than the other and the one on the left had higher arched eyebrows; however just because she was able to see these differences didn't mean that she necessarily knew which brother was which. She placed her hand on her mouth thoughtfully as she walked around them once.

The twins waited patiently for her to answer. They were both slightly nervous about how she was examining them. Part of them wanted her to guess right, but another part wanted her to be wrong. After all no one had ever gotten right before. It was always them and everyone else and a large part of them were afraid that she would be the first to cross over into their world.

Keiko stopped in front of them; her eyes briefly flickering between them. Then without any hesitation she pointed at the brother on her left and said, "That's Hikaru."

" _Bzz –Sorry you got it wrong,"_ they said.

The other girl shook her head though almost looking amused. "No," she disagreed calling their bluff; "I know I'm right."

_'Could it be? Had someone else finally invaded our world?'_

"Amazing, Maeda-san! No one's never been able to tell the two apart," one of the twins' fangirl said.

"Yeah when they put on those hats it's pretty much impossible to tell who is who," another chimed in.

Keiko turned to them with a smile and shrugged. "It was simple actually. I put a post-it on Hikaru's back," she confessed plainly. There was a collective gasp at her words, the twins quickly springing into action as Kaoru turned his brother around to examine his back. Sure enough there it was, stuck in between his shoulder blades, a bright orange post-it note.

Ripping it off, Hikaru and Kaoru shot the girl a glare. _"That's cheating."_

This time Keiko really did smile. "Nuh-uh," she reasoned waving her index finger as if she were talking to a child, "you two didn't specify whether or not I could use post-its, therefore I was not breaking any rules."

By now neither of them was sure how to respond. Kaoru taken a step back and was staring at her intently feeling a twinge of respect, while Hikaru, being more prone to emotional outbursts, was turning red with anger. She walked up to them and snatched the orange paper out of Hikaru's hand and actually laughed. "I did learn something from this," she remarked looking the older twin in the eyes. "You are more childish than your brother is which makes you infinitely more fun to mess with."

There was a palpable twinkle in her eyes when focused her attention on Kaoru. Reverting back into usually persona, she smiled warmly, "Thank you Hitachiin-san! This was really fun." Then turning to Kyoya as she grabbed the discarded tea tray and headed back to the prep room she told him, "I'm going to clock out early today. Hikaru and Kaoru will clean up."

A couple dozen pairs of eyes followed her as she came back out with her book bag and said goodbye to Haruhi throwing a casual, "good luck," over her shoulder as she slipped through the doors. None said anything for a couple of second, but then like air being let out of a balloon a distinct childish giggling began to drifted over from the third-year's table. And while no one else laughed with Honey-sempai, the girls in the room took a special enjoyment in Hikaru's anger.

_'Hikaru-kun is so hot…'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, chapter 3! Not exactly what I had mapped out, but I like it so much more. As of yet the majority of this story is still undecided, so I'm open to any suggestions that you may have. It will mostly be following the anime in earlier chapters and manga in later chapters, however in regards to how long this will be... I'm as clueless as you guys are. It has the potential to turn into Canterbury Tales!


	4. Hermoine Granger, I am not

**OHSHC: The Host's Maid is the Shy Type**  
Chapter 4  
 _"Hermione Granger, I am not"_  


* * *

Weekends were a relaxing time for most. Two days where you were allowed to prop up your feet and do absolutely nothing. Most students would spend their Saturday morning sleeping in or watching early morning cartoons on the couch with a box of leftover pizza. Keiko on the other hand, had more important things to do for her weekends were usually spent working at the diner, doing homework, or catching up on chores.

Currently the blonde girl was sitting on the couch surround by textbooks trying to study; the key word being 'trying' as she wasn't getting much accomplished. She knew that she shouldn't have tried to do this at her boyfriend's house. But it was either this or listening to the blaring stereo, while Ryan turned the living room into a warzone as he worked on another one of his projects. She had picked the lesser of two evils.

She really needed to focus though. After last week when she had fallen in with infamous Host Club the time she had to focus on her studies had been cut virtually in half. It was almost running her ragged and today was a last stitch effort to get ahead so the next week wasn't so exhausting. Except Hideki was being a more than just a little distracting as his lips grazed her jawline and he traced small circles on the bare skin of her stomach.

"I really need to study," she told him halfheartedly casting a glance at her discarded chemistry book. A small sigh escaped her when he settled on a certain spot on her neck, lingering for a moment, before placing another gentle kiss on her lips. Eyes fluttering shut as a result, she tried to remember the last thing she had read. _'Something about covalent bonds… it is when one atom takes an electron…no that's not right,'_ she reflected annoyed at him for distracting her and with herself for being so easily distracted.

Opening her eyes as he pulled away she stared in to his dark brown irises. They were so dark that they almost looked black, but being this close to his face, only a breath apart, she was able to pick out the lighter shades of amber. Objectively, Hideki wasn't the most attractive boy she had seen nor was he the least. Heaven knows he wouldn't be winning any beauty contests or starting a modeling career anytime soon, but she didn't much care about that. Appearance wise everything about him was average. He wasn't the kind of person you'd be able to pick out of a crowd unless you knew who you were looking for. Being two years older than her, he had a distinct boy-next-door feel about him.

A bit ironic considering that he was actually Keiko's neighbor. It was only a short walk, Keiko had counted, fifty paces from her front door to his. He and his family had moved into the condominium complex at the end of the summer and after bumming into each other at the laundry room they had instantly bonded over their similar taste in music. After that things progressed naturally until he had finally gotten up the courage to ask her out.

Now they had been dating for a little over three months and except for the fact that he was distracting her from studying, she didn't have any complaints.

"You're pushing yourself too hard," he replied while brushing a strand of her straight blonde hair over her shoulder. She had worn it down today knowing that was how he liked it best. "You need to relax or you're going to pass out."

Keiko avoided his worried gaze choosing instead to focus on his hair. The thick black strands were starting to fall in his eyes making him look a little scruffier than usual. "I'm fine," she said hoping that would soothe away that small frown, "I can handle it."

Hideki let out a sigh as he forced his girlfriend to make eye contact with him. "You don't need to be working so hard. I'm worried for your health. Ever since you started going to the school all you ever do is work. I rarely see you anymore; in fact I'd almost think you were cheating on me with your textbooks," he chuckled at his own joke, but there was an underlying hint of seriousness in his tone. It wasn't as if he hadn't noticed the dark circles that had begun to appear under his girlfriend's eyes or the sluggish movements as she leaned against him when he walked her home from the diner. "How much sleep have you been getting?"

Keiko tilted her chin up stubbornly. "Enough."

"Kei," he chided, "you need sleep."

"No. What I need is a time turner," she retorted moving away from him and snatching the chemistry book of the coffee table," however since time travel isn't possible for us muggles coffee's the next best thing."

He could see that she wouldn't be budging on the subject. It didn't matter how much he pushed. Once Keiko had set her mind to do something, there was very little anyone, much less him, could do to stop her. "Black two sugars?" He called over his shoulder as stood up and walked over to the kitchen.

"Yep."

Grabbing the still warm pot of coffee that he had always kept on hand when Keiko came over, he poured a fairly large amount into a deep ceramic mug then stirring in two large spoonful of sugar. It had become a routine. Every time Keiko stopped by he would make a pot of coffee and she would drink it while she was there. Now that he was thinking about it he realized that it was very domestic.

Keiko looked up from her textbook, her face breaking out into a happy smile, and took the mug from his hands. " _Thanks Babe,_ " she acknowledged slipping into English; something that she had a habit of doing from time to time. She took a small sip savoring it before humming to herself happily.

Hideki watched her as she did this. There was a certain tenderness sinking into his features causing a fluttering feeling to flare up in his chest. It didn't make much sense, he reflected, she wasn't doing anything special, yet every time he looked at her he wondered why she chose someone like him. It was obvious that she was so far out of his league.

He knew that she didn't see it, but she really was beautiful. Everything about her seemed to draw him in; her hair, her lips, the way the sun reflected off her eyes causing them to glow a bright green, the stubborn set of her jaw, how she always had a quick retort for everything, the way she takes care of her siblings… _'Great now I sound like a lovesick girl.'_

Of course Keiko didn't notice how he was looking at her, but she could still feel his eyes drilling holes in her skull. She glanced up questioningly. "What is it?"

The older boy shook his head. "You're cute today."

She tilted her head and grinned, "Meaning I'm not cute every other day?"

"No," he chuckled wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "you're just especially cute today."

Keiko laughed and leaned for brushing her lips briefly against his. "You're cute too."

…

"Maeda pay attention!"

Over the sound of pounding feet and sneaker squeaks Keiko could distinctly make out the gruff voice of the girls' basketball coach. She had just narrowly avoided a basketball to the face. Whizzing past her head all she saw was an orange blur out of the corner of her eye. It was only because of her fast reflexes that she managed to dodge it at all.

"Sorry Coach!" she said forcing herself to focus on her surroundings.

Needless to say, she had been a little distracted as of late. Too tired. Hideki had been right, as much as she hated to admit it; she needed to take a break. Everything seemed hazy and often times she found herself zoning in and out, possibly falling asleep as well, while she went about the last two days.

_'I'm going to have to talk to Kyoya,'_ she sighed. Things couldn't continue the way they were. It was too much and something had to give.

Running down the court she stole the ball from one of the other girls and moved towards the basket passing it to another player. The coach had the team running drills in preparation for the final game of the season. They were playing a rival school, Lobelia Girls' Academy, and if they wanted to win each one had to be at the top of their game. Keiko knew that she currently wasn't.

And she wasn't the only one, if the side glances she kept seeing from Eri were any indication.

"Are you feeling alright?"

Keiko paused in the process of grabbing her uniform out of her locker. Her eyes quickly darted to the shorter girl beside her. "Just dandy," she drawled. "Why do you ask?"

It was a stupid question.

Eri unwrapped the towel from her hair and gave Keiko the look. "Because you almost made out with the ball," she replied.

"I'm just feeling a little overworked," Keiko told her honestly.

"So you're finally admitting it."

"Yeah."

The other girl leaned against the lockers and scrutinized the blonde. Around them most of the other girls had changed back into their school uniforms and were already exiting the locker room. They didn't pay any attention to this though as they both stood there in their underwear and bras.

Keiko ignored her friends piercing gaze as she pulled the hideous monstrosity over her head. ' _Whoever came up with this girls' uniform should be hunted down and shot.'_

She was waiting for Eri to say whatever it was she was going to say, but it was taking her a long time to get it out. "If you have something on your mind, don't hold back on my account," she quipped.

Eri snapped back into focus. "No it's nothing," she said shaking her head. "I was only wondering if you were going to drop out of the Host Club. You never told me why or how you actually ended up joining. I was a bit surprised. It didn't seem like your kind of thing."

"It's not really…"

"–Then why do it?"

Keiko didn't answer. What could she say? The last thing she wanted was for Eri to know about her debt. If that happened Keiko knew that Eri would end up paying it off for her… It was worse to owe people you knew than complete strangers.

"Well you said it yourself," she started choosing her words carefully, "I needed to learn how to have fun. Those guys, for the most part, looked like they were enjoying themselves so I joined. Besides I think it'd be good for me, broaden my horizons a bit."

Eri frowned. "I never said you didn't know how to have fun. You do. I only meant that you needed to allow you self to have fun. I didn't mean that you had to join a club to do that," the girl explained.

"Well whatever," Keiko shrugged bending down to tie her shoes. "I need to get to the clubroom. I'm already late as it is. You coming in today?"

"No I have to take my brothers home. If I'm not there the driver will leave without me."

"Oh okay," she said standing up and closing her locker. "Tell your brothers I said hi. _Mata ashita."_ She waved at Eri before she exited the locker room. If she had turned around she would have noticed Eri staring holes through the floor with a puzzled expression on her face.

…

After a week Keiko had learned what to expect during a typical day at the Host Club. And except for the usual craziness with the guests and the hosts, it was a lot like working at the diner. Of course her job had its crazy moments too, but the only thing she really had to worry about was when some of the male costumers got a little too handsy. However since she was surrounded by girls, Keiko didn't give much thought to perverts at the club.

Yet that didn't mean that it hadn't crossed her mind at least once or twice… maybe three times.

For you see, Keiko was still a little leery of the twins. Since last week when she had pretty much humiliated them, one more than the other, she had caught them watching her on multiple occasions. It made her nervous because guys like that rarely went without retaliating and yet neither of them had done anything to get her back. Maybe that's what they wanted though. Maybe they were just trying to psyche her out.

"Here you go, Honey-Sempai." Keiko actually smiled as she placed a large slice of red velvet cake in front of the blond haired senior. Out of all the host club members he was one of the ones she got along with the best. Tamaki was a little too loud for her tastes, Takashi too quiet, Kyoya too… well Kyoya, and the twins who were the twins; besides Haruhi, who she didn't really think counted because she was also a girl, Mitsukuni was probably her favorite. Though that may have had something to do with the resemblance he had to a certain middle schooler that she thought of as a little brother. "You sure do like cake, huh?"

The blond smiled, practically radiating happiness, and nodded. "Mmhmm. It's my favorite," then stabbing his fork in the icing and taking a rather large mouthful.

She glanced over at her the other third year. "Is there anything you want Mori-sempai?"

"No thanks."

She nodded and cast one last glance over her shoulder as Takashi leaned over and passed his cousin a napkin. _'Those two sure make an interesting pair,_ ' she mused looking around the room. Things were pretty quiet right now because most of the students had chosen to go home. There was only thirty more minutes before the club closed and Keiko was itching to get out of there too. However she knew that she couldn't immediately take off because she had set her mind to talk to Kyoya before she left. There was no telling how the older boy would react to her asking to cut back on her time at the club and she shuddered to think of what she'd have to end up doing to make up for it, yet it had to be done. She couldn't keep going on like this and that was a fact.

Spotting Haruhi by one of the windows, Keiko made her way over. The brunette 'boy' was surrounded by three girls, who were chatting idly about the upcoming cherry blossom viewing that the Host Club was putting on. Apparently, as Keiko had learned, the Host Club did a lot of special events along with the normal hosting days. The flower viewing was just one of many.

"Oh the _sakura_ blossoms are in full bloom. It's so pretty. I can't wait…" One of the girls said dreamily. Her name was Kudo-something, but Keiko couldn't be sure. Being a regular at the club, she had learned that Haruhi and her were in the same class. She had brown eyes and straight brown hair that she pinned up on the sides of her head. It reminded Keiko of Princess Leia, except that she only pinned up a small section of her hair and left the rest of it to fall down her back.

"Excuse me Ladies," Keiko sang, "would any of you like something to eat?" She held up the tray in her hands showing them the assortment of sweets. Most of it was cake, of course, but there were also parfaits, pie, and brownies as well.

The girls looked over their choices. "I'll have the peach parfait," Kudo-something, or Princess Leia as Keiko had now elected to call her, said.

Haruhi watched as Keiko interacted with the girls at the table. It seemed to be almost effortless as she moved into the conversation. With charm and poise that Haruhi didn't possess, it wasn't long before she had the other girls giggling at clever quip here and nodding their heads thoughtfully at an insightful remark there. It amazed her how quickly the other girl fit in with the club like she was always there to begin with. Then again for someone like Keiko it was a talent, which made it all the more surprising to learn that the other girl scarcely interacted with the other students outside of the club.

"…How do you like being in the Host Club?"

"I like it a lot, surprising really because it wasn't really my thing. I don't typically enjoy making a spectacle of myself, however since I've joined it's been really fun," Keiko lied. The other girls wouldn't know the difference had she been telling the truth. To the objective observer, the girl was polite and intuitive and maybe a bit quiet at times. Her easy smiles and laidback nature put even the most suspicious people at ease.

When the rest of the guests had finally left and her fellow club members were still in the main room was when Keiko saw the opportunity to escape. Under the disguise of 'cleaning up' she grabbed a try filled with a used tea set and an untouched slice of cake and retreated to the prep room. It was there, where she knew for a fact no one else would see, that she with great relief leaned against the counter and let that painfully fake smile fall off her face.

_'So exhausting…'_ she groaned moving the items off the tray.

It was too long of a day. Having club right after practice really took all the girl's get-up-and-go leaving her in the fatigued state that she was in now. To make matters worse she had a shift at the diner today, but she considered calling in sick to make up on sleep. That wouldn't happen though because no matter how tired she may be Keiko knew that she need the money from that job. Every shift counted as there was no telling when Ryan's artwork was going to sell and they still had bills to pay.

Therefore fighting off the urge to liquefy and pool onto the floor an unidentifiable enigma, she slapped her cheeks a couple times to wake herself up. Keeping her hands busy served as a good enough distraction. She then began to deliberate what she could say to Kyoya. She knew that the older boy was practical and no matter how cut-throat he seemed, he would still listen to reason. And so all she need was a realistic and plausible excuse.

There was a problem with that, however, because Keiko was currently drawing a blank.

She should've had a million reasons why she needed a break; exhaustion and over exertion being a top contender. But it didn't matter how much she tired, her sleep muddled brain outright refused to be of any help. Instead she had that ridiculous candy bar jingle running through her mind.

_Give me a break; give me a break  
Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar._

The sound of footsteps briefly pulled her attention from the song. It faded into the back of her mind to a muted hum of elevator music, something that relieved her greatly. Keiko glanced over her shoulder at the new arrival plastering an easy smile on her face. "Hey Haruhi…" she greeted then froze.

Why did she freeze? Well ever since Keiko was a child she had always needed more sleep than her sister. The reason for it was because when she got too tired would be cranky, moody, and overall hungry. The correlation between her being exhausted and her being hungry perplexed her immensely and no one could really understand it. But it often led to something else… daydreaming.

Keiko didn't daydream about any normal things. She didn't imagine what it would be like to travel to another country or think up elaborate romantic scenarios involving her boyfriend. She dreamed about food. She dreamed about food a lot. And when she was overly tired those food dreams became grandiose hallucinations like now where Haruhi was dressed up like a Kit Kat Bar.

She stood there for a moment, staring blankly, while Haruhi regarded her oddly. "Are you feeling alright?" She asked.

" _Hia!"_ she yelled snapping out of her trance and whirling around so all Haruhi could see was her back and not the hysterical grin that was threatening to cut her face in two. Keiko almost lost her composure altogether after peeking over her shoulder and saw Haruhi waddling up next to her. _'It's not real. Keep your cool. Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Don't laugh…'_

Meanwhile the burnet girl set down her own tray on the counter and examined her blonde club member worriedly. To say that the other girl looked like hell would be an understatement. She looked worse than hell. It was as if hell ran her over with a semi-truck then backed up and ran over her again. The dark circles under her eyes seemed darker and her face had been taking on a sickly pallor. It had the other hosts more than a little fretful for their newest member.

Haruhi placed her hand the girl's shoulder. "Keiko-san…"

"–Ah I'm fine. I'm fine," she giggled –Keiko didn't giggle, "You're just like a mother hen, Ha-ru-hi – _kun!"_

It was getting way too weird. How was she supposed to react to this? Haruhi looked around hoping for some sign as to handle the situation. To think that she thought there would finally be someone else normal in the club that she could relate too… ' _Guess I spoke too soon.'_

"I'll be right back. I need to talk to Kyoya-sempai about something," Keiko said tossing down the sponge that she had been using on the tea set. She needed to get out of there. Now preferably, before she would end up doing something embarrassing. She had experienced this enough times to know the signs. First came the physical exhaustion, sore muscles, tired eyes, the whole shebang, and then her mind would start to shut down starting with the daydreaming, hallucinations, and finally the girly giggling that was against everything that made her her.

She was fighting it with everything she had, albeit it was only a matter of time before she crashed; falling asleep on the first flat surface she could find, which in this case would be the floor. She was only vaguely aware that Haruhi had followed her out of the prep room. Her eyes scanned the room ignoring the blue and orange popsicles dancing around with a cup of coffee and the carrot sitting next to the cupcake as he munched on a smaller cupcake (possible cannibalism… maybe).

Keiko skipped over the one of the tables where the hotdog was still typing away on his laptop. Why she pictured Kyoya in a hotdog suit was beyond her. If she were more alert, she might have contributed it to being her subconscious way of labeling him as a dick. Nevertheless, Keiko was too far gone for any deductive reasoning so it didn't matter in the end. "Kyo-ya – _kun,_ " she hummed, "can I talk to you a sec?"

The Shadow King paused in surprise, his fingers faltering on the keyboard, and eyed the blonde questioningly. Did he hear her right? A small frown marred his face, however Keiko either didn't notice or care as another feminine giggle bubbled past her lips. "Sure…" he said his eyes flickering briefly to Haruhi.

The girl only shrugged clearly as confused at what was going on as he was. _'Your guess is as good as mine…'_

During this exchange, Keiko was trying and failing to focus solely on Kyoya's face. The hotdog suit was too hilarious. "It's about next week – _hehe –_ I have this…" she stopped and let out an unladylike snort erupting into a bout of boisterous laughter. By now the other club members had noticed the girl's strange behavior.

"What's wrong with Blondie?" Hikaru asked.

"Why is she laughing…"

"–Kei-chan doesn't look so good…"

"–Ah! Mommy, do something. Our niece snapped!"

They started to crowd around her, but only Haruhi reached out to steady her when the girl teetered on her feet. Nonetheless, she was a little too far off when Keiko tripped on air and tilted backwards. The blonde crashed to the floor in a heap inches from the female host's feet.

Everyone froze for a second before rushing over to see if the other girl was okay. Leaning over her deflated figure they peered down curiously. Keiko was fine. The other girl didn't even seem to know that she had fallen in the first place. She let out a small sigh and snuggled closer to the tile floor. It was Hikaru who broke the silence, stating the obvious, "She's asleep?!"


	5. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

**OHSHC: The Host's Maid is the Shy Type**  
Chapter 5  
****_"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"_

* * *

Haruhi checked the time on her watch for what seemed like the twelfth time in the last ten minutes. There were so many other things she rather being doing at the moment. She should've been home by now having just finished her homework and starting on dinner, but no she was dragged into yet another round of craziness because of the Host Club.

Looking over to the cause of all this trouble, the girl let out a sigh and glanced at her watch yet again. The girl in question was still asleep; a miraculous feat in itself. When Keiko had passed out in the clubroom it resulted in panic for the Host King. Tamaki had immediately taken to a shouting very loudly.

"Mommy, call the hospital!" He had wailed dramatically.

The raven haired boy let out a tired breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "There's no need for that. She only sleeping," he explained.

The twins, having crouched down, were poking the sleeping girl's face. "Oi. Oi. Blondie," Hikaru prodded. His brother poked her side enticing a giggle and she rolled away slightly before letting out a tiny snore. Apparently she was ticklish, but that wouldn't help them in this situation.

Kaoru shot a look towards Hikaru after the other twin had picked up one of her limp hands and dropped it on her face. "Hikaru…"

"That wasn't very nice, Hika-chan," Mitsukuni had chimed in as well with a frown. Keiko was unfazed, however, and continued sleeping not the least bit aware of what was going on around her.

The older twin shrugged. "I wanted to see if it would work…"

"What do we do, Kyoya-sempai?" Haruhi questioned. She didn't think it was a good idea let the twins keep trying to wake her up, but she also didn't want to wait around for her to wake up.

"I suppose we call her emergency contact," he responded removing his cell phone from his pocket and dialing an already memorized number. He waited as the ringing continued through the speaker then switching to voicemail.

_"Hey you reached Suffragette City. Sorry we're not in, but don't commit rock'n'roll suicide just crank a message at the feedback… Ry we're not having that on our answering machine… BEEP."_

It was then decided that the club would personally escort Keiko home. Takashi was charged with the task of carrying the sleeping girl to one of the limos as no one trusted the twins not to drop her on her face. Haruhi had tried to sneak away at this point, albeit her plan was foiled when Tamaki latched onto her telling her that she needed to look out for the wellbeing of her 'cousin'.

Now, all seven of the hosts and one unconscious girl were piled into the limo on their way to the Hamamatsucho district. Keiko was put between the two third years once sitting between the twins resulted in Ping-Pong match involving the girl's head. Neither of the two was comfortable with her sleeping on them so they kept pushing her towards the other brother until Kyoya got fed up and put her between Takashi and Mitsukuni. The blonde curled up next to the dark haired senior mumbling unintelligibly. If Takashi was at all uncomfortable he never showed it on his face.

It took the group all of eleven minutes, with very minimal traffic, to reach Keiko's place of residence. The tall building loomed over them as they exited the limo. It looked nothing like Haruhi's apartment complex or any apartment complex for that matter. It stood about maybe six or seven stories high with no balconies or opening windows, at least from what they could see standing at the entrance. It had more of a resemblance to an office building than anything else.

"Kyoya are you sure this is the right address?" Tamaki asked.

"It was the one written in her file. This building used to be offices, but was converted several years ago into condominiums," the other boy replied simply walking up to the directory. The rest of the club stared blankly at the raven haired Shadow King and then cast one last glance at the building before they too followed.

Takashi had Keiko slung on his back like a backpack. The blonde girl clung to him in a manner that was not that much different of a baby chimpanzee. Her arms wrapped loosely over his shoulders and around his neck, while he held the area under her knees for support. Despite his outward appearance, the older boy was not as indifferent to the blonde as the others thought. While they were looking over the directory he was constantly aware of the warm breaths hitting the back of his neck and how when she shifted certain areas of her body would brush against his back causing him to tense ever so slightly before he tried to distance himself as much as he could.

Only his cousin, Mitsukuni, seemed conscious of his inner turmoil. Albeit the shorter blond was finding some amusement in his current predicament and kept shooting him smug smirks whenever the others weren't watching. Takashi returned these looks with his own mildly irate glare and huffed under his breath. _'He is really too sly for his own good…'_

It didn't take long for them to locate the name Maeda on the directory. The front door was always locked and could only be opened a four digit code on the keypad. Since none of them knew the code, the only way for them to get in would be to press the intercom button next to the Maeda name and hope that someone would buzz them in.

They stood silently waiting. They didn't have to wait long as only a few seconds later there was a click and male's voice coming through the speakers.

_"What's the password?"_

"Well don't look at me," Kyoya mumbled adjusting his glasses and ignoring the pointed looks he was receiving. It wasn't like he knew everything.

"Then what do we do?" Tamaki was quick to flail around theatrically. The blond looked at the others for help. He received none. Hikaru and Karou shrugged already growing bored.

Haruhi sighed again. _'Damn rich bastards…'_ She was almost at her limits for the Host Club today. Seeing that no one else was doing anything she stepped forward and jammed her finger onto the intercom button with more force than necessary. "We don't know it," she said a hint of annoyance seeping into her voice.

_"Aw, that's too bad. Would you like a hint?"_ The response was teasing and laced with subdued laughter. It was obvious that this person was only messing with them as a joke. Nevertheless none of them were the slightest bit amused, especially Kyoya who recognized the voice from the answering machine message.

Kyoya, starting to get as fed up as Haruhi, cut in. "We're looking for a Maeda Ryan."

_"Are you selling somethin'?"_ Ryan perked up. The man was hoping it was those little Girl Scouts again selling their Thin Mints. He should've bought more than three boxes, but Keiko wouldn't let him spend their food budget on cookies.

"No."

_"Oh well, can't be helped I guess… Nice chatting with you, but I'm busy right now so good evening."_

"–Wait!" Tamaki yelled pushing Haruhi and Kyoya out of the way. The two shared equal looks of displeasure at the rough shove; the girl even grumbling under her breath as she retreated from the flamboyant second-year. "We need to get into the building! Please, it's an emergency!"

_"Is it now?"_ He asked skeptically.

Tamaki nodded his head furiously at the intercom; the act a bit ridiculous considering that the other man couldn't see him. "Yes. Yes," he agreed.

In the living room, Ryan stared at the intercom system in deep thought. It wasn't every day that someone buzzed their intercom. Usually when it happened it was someone looking for someone else in the building or someone forgetting their code. There were only a few rare instances where someone was there specifically to see them. It more than peaked his curiosity as he didn't recognize any of the voices and they had explicitly asked for him by name.

_"Have you ever seen the Wizard of Oz?"_

Five confused expression formed as a result of the question; only Tamaki and Kyoya looked as if they had any idea what that was. Of course the blonde was far more excited than his friend as that movie was one of his favorites. He had had Kyoya watch it with him almost sixteen or seventeen times since they met; once four times in a row. Kyoya still had unpleasant memories associated with that particular movie. He couldn't listen to the song, _Somewhere Over the Rainbow,_ without having his eye start twitching.

"Yes."

_"So you remember when they go to Emerald City and they ring the bell and the little guy with the beard sticks his head out and they ask to see the wizard and he says 'No'? And then they said, 'Well she's the girl with the ruby slippers.' And he says, 'Now that's a horse of a different color. Come on in.'"_

Kyoya could vaguely recall the scene in which the other man was referring. If his memory served him correctly, he also remembered a rainbow horse towing a carriage. "Yes..."

_"–Well, I'm the guy with the beard and I'm saying 'No.' unless you can come up with the ruby slippers…"_

Haruhi, while not understanding the movie reference, understood what he was asking of them. The others were more or less confused on the subject. She distinctly heard Kaoru mutter something like, "So does he want us to buy him a pair of ruby slippers?"

"We have your sister." It was Kyoya who answered. He didn't say much. It was only four words, yet those four words instantly changed the man's tone. It was like when Tamaki went from his gloomy corner and started being the obnoxious idiot that he was. He sound surprised, dare they say chipper.

_"Oh! Well that's a horse of a different color. Come on in…"_

It took them longer than it should've to find the front door of flat 7D. The group wandered around aimlessly for a good ten minutes because the numbering system seemed to have no order whatsoever. The long hallways were eerily quiet as they walked. Overhead one of the fluorescent lights flickered, briefly going dimmer before lighting up again brighter than before.

Mitsukuni was the first to see the flat. He had skipped ahead of them a ways humming a cheery tune that only he knew. Then the blond senior stopped in his tracks to admire a green ceramic frog sitting outside one of the doors. Its dark eyes stared up at him and its mouth was partly open as if it were about to catch a fly. He stooped down and picked it up. Turing it over in his hands, he wondered who would leave something like this out in the hall. It was only after he examined the frog and glanced at the door that he noticed the number and letter written on it.

"Hey guys!" He called happily waving at them from down the hall, "I found it." The boy set the frog back down and the floor and waited for the others.

On the other side of the door, Ryan was sorting through a large trash bag filled with plastic soda bottles. He was arranging them according to color and size tossing them in piles around the room. Every time he added another bottle to a pile, the force at which he threw them resulted in the bottles rolling away from each other. In reality all he was doing was making a big mess that someone, most likely Keiko, would have to clean up later.

The man was so focused on sorting that he quickly forgot about the conversation over the intercom and that there were people coming to see him. It was normal for him to get so caught up that he forgot things. He was naturally an absentminded person and if Keiko didn't remind on a daily basis he would likely forget his head.

His body froze at that last thought. _'Wait a minute… Where is Keiko?'_ Ryan erected himself, his eyes drifting to the place where the wall clock used to hang before he remembered that he still hadn't replaced it yet. "That's what I forgot to do today," he muttered under his breath.

He scratched his chin in thought and groaned. Keiko had specifically told him to get another clock. Now, when she got home she would give him that look. He hated that look. It was something that she had developed over the years when the man did something stupid or didn't do something he was supposed to; across between exasperation and disappointment with a heavy dose of acceptance. It made him feel like a child.

"Damn…" he hissed reaching into his back pocket and retrieving a smashed pack of cigarettes. He slipped one of the tobacco sticks out placing it between his teeth. Then snatching his lighter off the makeshift coffee table, which was really a couple of wooden crates turned over and nailed together, he flicked the flint and brought it up to his mouth. However, Ryan didn't light the stick between his teeth as he thought of how mad his little sister had gotten the last time he had been smoking inside.

Ryan grumbled and extinguished the flame, tossing it back on the coffee table, and then removing the cigarette from his mouth and tucking it behind his ear. He would have to go out onto the fire escape later.

There was something else, he knew, he was forgetting. It was something important, yet for the life of him he couldn't recall what that thing was. "Ah come on brain," he hit himself lightly in the head a couple of times hoping that, like the crappy television they owned, it would help his brain work better.

_'What was it?'_ He asked himself.

Back in the hallway, all the Host Club members were now standing in front of the door. Kyoya raised his fist and gave three sound raps on the door. There was a beat of silence and then an exclamation of "Oh that's it!" followed by the sound of something like marbles rolling on wood before the door opened.

A man, who they were correct in assuming was Keiko's brother, stuck his head out and leaned against the doorframe. The difference between the two siblings was shocking. While Keiko was fair-haired and relatively average height, Ryan stood at the same height as Takashi and had the almond shaped eyes set in an oval face and hidden partly underneath wavy black bangs. The only trait they both shared was the cloudy hazel eyes that were curious and far too perceptive.

He looked them over, his eyes landing on Keiko clinging on to Takashi's back. He instantly recognized the school uniforms that the seven, six he corrected examining the second shortest host, young men were wearing. Ryan chose not to comment on that, but instead smiled charmingly and said, "Oh, it's Snow White and the seven dwarfs! Come in, come in."

The club members blinked, perplexed by the man's behavior, and stared as he just walked back into the flat leaving the door wide open for them to come in.

Haruhi having grown used to the Host Clubs antics merely shrugged and followed Ryan through the doorway. The rest of the club trailed after her with varying degrees of curiosity and indifference; Kyoya and Takashi being the most aphetic, while Tamaki, Mitsukuni, and the twins scrutinized their surroundings with a sense of child-like wonder. The smallest host closed the door behind them.

Now this is the point where I, as the narrator, describe to you the Maeda's house (technically a condominium), however it is a bit difficult to do because the place was anything but normal. In the building complex, as you know probably already guessed, there were a number of set floor plans. These floor plans didn't vary much from each complex; all basically the same just flipped. That was until you got to the Maeda's complex being the only complex in the building with three stories and a unique floorplan.

There were many reasons for this. If you were to ask the contractor that was in charge of the remodel, it was because "the original architect was on crack." He had designed the building in such a bizarre way that there could be no other explanation for the building being seven stories in height and one corner of it being nine. It wasn't even a square block. Instead it was two different sized blocks stacked on top of each other with the smaller block being on top. It elicited a rant from the man on more than one occasion whilst he was on the job.

But all that is beside the point. Sure the floor plan was unusual, yet that was what attracted Kiersten and Naozane to buy it in the first place. Unusual people were drawn to unusual things. And like his parents, Ryan was an eccentric.

The Host Club figured this out immediately looking around them. Ignoring the bags and bags filled with plastic bottles, the décor ranged from tribal masks to modern lamps to antique furniture and abstract paintings. There was no color scheme and nothing matched, yet everything fit. To describe it in one word would be whimsical.

Ryan waded through mess with practiced grace. He removed the cigarette from behind his ear and placed it between his lips. He had already forgotten the no smoking inside rule. "Keiko's room is upstairs, first door on the right," he instructed waving his hand idly toward the wooden staircase.

The Host Club members who weren't preoccupied with examining the Abraham Lincoln sculpture being used as a coat rack, Takashi and Mitsukuni, made their way up the stairs.

The blond was back to humming happily as he studied each little knickknack that they past. The photographs on the wall stood out to him the most, depicting happy memories and a loving family. There were plenty of Keiko; some where she was covered in dirt with bumps and bruises grinning at the camera and others where she was dressed in flowery dresses with her hair in pretty curls and wearing black framed glasses.

_'She really is cute…'_ he mused glancing at the peaceful expression of the sleeping girl.

It wasn't difficult to figure out which room was Keiko's. Unlike the hallways, inside the Maeda's house was very easy to navigate. Mitsukuni pushed the door open looking around the room with apparent nosiness. His dark-haired cousin followed behind him quietly taking in the room with less noticeable interest.

Compared to their large luxurious mansions, the room was tiny. Of course anything would be tiny in that comparison. Neither of the two boys was as unware of their wealth to think that Keiko's room would be the same size as theirs. Still there was enough space for them to move around comfortably. And as little furniture there was, a bunkbed, a desk, two bookshelves, and a couple of bean bag chairs, it was cozy.

Takashi laid the girl down on the bottom bunk. She instantly curled up around a pillow and relaxed against the mattress; her soft blonde hair mused in its ponytail and some strands falling out altogether. He grabbed a knitted blanket from the top bunk and draped it over her after slipping her small feet out of the sneakers. A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he watched her, entirely dead to the world.

Meanwhile, Mitsukuni had been silently poking around the room. He looked through all the books cluttering the shelves and some stacked precariously on the floor. Then he examined the acoustic guitar propped up on its stand before taking a peak through the already opened closet door. Seeing that only half the closet was filled with clothes with shoes thrown haphazardly onto the floor, he moved to go over to the desk catching a glimpse of a ballet slipper sitting at the top of the pile. The boy had been the process of perusing the little trinkets sitting there when he accidently knocked over a picture frame.

The loud noise was enough to alert his cousin to his antics and the dark-haired boy whirled around. "Mitsukuni," he scolded.

The blond blinked back sheepishly and quickly erected the fallen picture frame; lucky that the tumble hadn't cracked the glass. However he paused and had to do a double take at the photograph it contained. It was another picture of Keiko. She was with her brother Ryan standing in what he recognized as Haneda airport, but there was someone else in the picture; another girl who looked exactly like Keiko. She had the same hair and the same face, the only difference was she wore a pair of black framed glasses.

He took another quick glanced around the room and everything clicked. The bunkbeds, the half empty closet, the photographs in the hallway… _'Twins!'_ Excited at his discovery he waved Takashi over and pointed at the picture. "Ne, look Takashi!" He said holding up the picture to his face.

The other boy looked mildly interested and nodded.

In the meantime the other club members were still down stairs chatting with Ryan. "Thanks for bringing her home. I know all of you've must have gone out your way," the man said.

"It's no problem," Kyoya replied charmingly. It would be in their best interest to get along with Keiko's brother. Luckily, he seemed to be a pretty laidback person who got along with everybody.

"Sorry about the intercom. I wasn't aware anyone was coming over," he chuckled.

"We did try calling, but no one picked up," Haruhi explained.

Ryan could almost slap himself in the forehead for his stupidity. _'Oh damn, I need to call Marcus and tell him Keiko is not coming in tonight.'_ He looked around the room for the phone, but didn't immediately see it. "Oh yeah, I sort of lost the phone," he murmured picking up one of the bags to see what was underneath it. "If any of you see a plastic cheeseburger could you hand it to me?"

They all shared equal looks of confusion, but set out to search for the cheeseburger as well. The twins picked up one the bags, while the other looked under it. "Why do you have all these bottles, Ryan-nisan?" Kaoru asked, "Are you recycling?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes," he told the redhead. "They're for my next sculpture."

"Sculpture? You're an artist?" Tamaki perked up interested.

Ryan nodded modestly.

"That's amazing! How nifty using trash to make something beautiful! Why that's what true beauty is about; taking something that's not beautiful and making it so…"

Tamaki didn't realize the negative effect his words had on the man. He visibly deflated looking much like a kicked puppy. "You think its trash?" He mumbled.

"Uh…"

"–Found it!" Haruhi yelled out a little louder than necessary. She held the cheeseburger over her head. She hoped that it would distract everyone from the uncomfortable atmosphere. Why did Tamaki have to say that?

Kyoya intervened before the blond idiot said anything else. "You'll have to excuse our club president here. He's an idiot," he told the man with a smile.

_[Arrow 1: Idiot.]_

"Yeah, he has a habit of talking before he speaks…" Karou added.

"–He's obnoxious!" Hikaru agreed.

_[Arrow 2: Obnoxious.]_

"He thinks the world revolves around himself and had no sense for other people's feelings," Karou clarified ignoring the gurgling sounds the blond Sempai was making.

"- to sum it up," Kyoya cut in delivering the final blow, "he's a dimwitted narcissist with no tact."

_[Arrow 3: Dimwitted. Arrow 4: Narcissist. Arrow 5: Tactless.]_

Ryan looked over to the blond boy who had fallen dramatically on the floor. He was draped over a bag of plastic bottles, slightly twitching, and muttering ghoulishly under his breath. He turned back to the other club members and laughed. "Oh I see," he said, "All of you are from the butler café and that's Tamaki."

Instantly the blonde inflated returning back to usual obnoxious dimwitted self. "You know who I am?" He asked positively beaming.

"Of course! Kei's told me a lot about you," the man responded jovially. "You're the pervert who keeps calling himself _Oji-san_ and talking in third-person _."_

_[Arrow 6: Pervert.]_

"-I guess that would make you my _Oji-san_ too. It's a little strange considering that I'm a lot older than you, but, hey, if you being my uncle means getting extra presents at Christmas…I could live with that."

Ryan nodded his head proud of his brilliant deduction. None of the others were sure as to whether or not the man was joking. Tamaki, however, took everything at face value and jumped up excitedly. "Really? I can be your _Oji-san!"_

"Sure," he shrugged a little too quickly to be completely innocent. "I've never had an uncle before so this could be fun. And you know the first thing uncles do is buy their nephews a flat screen TV to mount up on the ceiling because I really hate sitting up."

If Keiko had been there to hear that she would have thumped her brother on the back of the head. But as coincidence would have it, she wasn't and there was no one stopping him from getting a free TV. The old one was crap anyways that needed to be replaced. It worked well enough and there wasn't many complaints considering it was free, Mr. Jelly had been really nice in getting it for them, yet having an actual TV that didn't need to be smacked every couple of hours would be nice.

Nevertheless these were Keiko's friends, though 'friends' was a rather loose term, and she wouldn't like him taking advantage of their money. "I'm only messing with you, Kid. Really it's nice to see that my _Imouto-chan_ is making such nice friends, if not a little insane though the best people always are," he laughed again and took the plastic cheeseburger from Haruhi.

Again they were all left baffled when he flipped open the patty revealing a house phone. The man was certainly wacky, yet they couldn't find it in themselves to dislike him for it. In fact it was pretty unanimous that they liked him because of it. When the two third-years returned down stairs they were meet with smiling faces and flying plastic bottles. What was supposed to be a quick trip ended up becoming a three hour 'study session', if Haruhi trying to do homework while everyone else chucked bottles everywhere in an effort to help Ryan with is sculpture counted as studying, and teaching them how to make tacos.

Haruhi dodged a flying bottle and sighed. She envied Snow White sleeping upstairs totally unaware of the havoc that was ensuing. _'Damn rich bastards…'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a really fun chapter to write. I didn't exactly work out the way that I imagined it, but things like this rarely do. Still I like it which is what counts in the end.
> 
> Thanks for reading, see ya guys soon!


	6. On the 1st Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me a Shy Maid in a Cafe

**OHSHC: The Hosts' Maid is the Shy Type**  
Chapter 6  
****_"On the 1st Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me a Shy Maid in a Café"_

* * *

As it turned out after Keiko's little fainting spell, the girl was allowed a day off to recuperate. Keiko had been somewhat angry when she woke up and found out that Ryan had called the school and told them she was sick. There was nothing to be done about it, however, and the man outright refused to let her go to the diner and work, claiming that she should be resting. His overprotective brother instincts were too much and Keiko just barely convinced him to let her move her bedrest to the study on the third-floor.

Once satisfied that she wasn't straining herself, Ryan left her alone for the remainder of the day; that was after he brought her breakfast, lunch, and dinner consisting of a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup. Those dishes being the only thing he could cook without burning or accidently setting fire to the kitchen. And while Keiko didn't like this forced confinement, she did use the opportunity to catch up and get ahead on her homework.

She even felt a little grateful for the break as she walked to the Third-Music Room the next day. Nevertheless she'd be lying if she said she wasn't the least bit nervous. Her fainting spell must've caused a lot of trouble for the Shadow King and she hated to think of what Kyoya would make her do to make up for it.

Keiko stopped outside the door and took a few seconds to enjoy the silence of the corridor. She found that her moments of quiet were disappearing rapidly so she would relish the few seconds of peace before the Host Club ruins it being their obnoxiously loud selves. Her grip on the door handle tightened and she plastered a cheerful smile on her face pushing open the door. "Hey guys…"

"–Oh _Mei-chan's_ here!"

Tamaki, in his especially exuberant self, quickly pounced on the girl to entrap in a bone crushing embrace. Fortunately, Keiko saw him coming and swiftly stepped out of the way. The blond boy crashed on the floor with a thud causing the girl to shake her head at his behavior. "How many times have I told you, you're my _Sempai_ not my _Oji-san?"_ She sighed resignedly, but soon after was almost knocked off her feet by the other blond host.

"Kei-chan, you're back!" Mitsukuni laughed hugging her around the waist and then twirling her in a circle so fast she got a little dizzy.

"Yeah, I'm back," she repeated her head bobbing a bit dazed.

"Are you feeling better? You look better…"

"Yeah I am. Thank you. I'm sorry if I caused you guys any trouble," she said. Her eyed trailed over the other hosts and she inclined her head slightly. "And thank you for taking me home."

"Of course, Keiko-san," Kyoya replied looking up from his laptop. "We couldn't just leave you sleeping on the floor." For a second, the older boy almost looked bothered before slipping back to his usual apathetic self. Even so his tone was as cold and emotionless as ever. "It's no matter though; you're running a little late. Head back to the changing room and put on your costume."

The blonde girl tilted her head at the order. _'Costume?'_ Her hazel eyes glanced down at Mitsukuni only just noticing that the older boy was clothed in a pale blue _Kimono_ with a lavender _Obi._ Takashi and Haruhi were also wearing similar outfits, while the rest of the host dawned on crisp black and white butler uniforms. She had absolutely no idea what the theme was supposed to be. "What's the theme supposed to be?"

Tamaki, until this moment had been sulking on floor the by the door, immediately jumped up to answer. "Why isn't it obvious Keiko? We're a butler café!" The Club President struck a dramatic pose before elaborating. "I got the idea from you charming Onii-san."

There was something in his eyes as he said this; a small glint or flicker of some emotion that Keiko couldn't quite put her finger on. It was almost… _'No, that couldn't be it,'_ she decided. There was no way that the flamboyant _Sempai_ was actually teasing her, right? Except that he was and no else had even noticed.

"Okay," she started still a little confused, "but last time I checked butlers didn't wear _Kimonos."_

"We're Servants of _Kuge!"_ Mitsukuni explained.

"Considering today's event is a cherry blossom viewing, we decided to mix the old with the new," Kyoya added.

"Then am I going to be a butler or be wearing a _Kimono?_ "

_"–Neither!"_ Hikaru and Kaoru shouted appearing in front of her with a tan garment bag. Both of them had that devilish gleam in their eyes that made Keiko take a step back and start thinking about bolting for the door. "We made a different costume exclusively for you. So come with us and we'll help you put it on…"

"Wait, why do you two need to help me put it on?" She took another nervous step backwards bumping into Mitsukuni. "What exactly is it?"

Instead of receiving an answer from the twins, Keiko was pushed forward. Hikaru and Karou took the sudden opportunity to hook each of their arms with hers and lift her from the ground. Keiko was still looking over her shoulder at the adorable blond boy that had shoved her. He had that cute innocent smile on his face as he waved, "I'll see you outside, Kei-chan!" But she only stared back with a look of betrayal. That was the first time she ever thought of Mitsukuni as an Imp.

Haruhi sighed as the other girl was dragged to the changing room. At least it wasn't her this time, but still her heart went out to the other girl. _'Sorry, I couldn't warn you in time…'_

The twins carried her back to the prep room where a section of it hung with thick white curtains creating a very basic changing room. They gave her a shove through the curtains against her protests and Kaoru flung the bag after her. Keiko barely managed turn around in time to catch it. "We'll wait out here until you put the basics on. If you need any help just ask," one of the twins, Kaoru, called out.

"Hurry it up though, we're already late as it is," Hikaru added.

There was an audible sigh from the other side of the curtain. "Yeah, okay…"

She walked over to the wall where some towel hooks there bolted in. Hanging the garment bag one of the hooks she quickly toed off her black sneakers and set them under the small bench. Keiko really saw no use in fighting with the twins to avoid putting on whatever costume it was. It wasn't like she didn't have to wear a uniform to work. She worked at an American Sixties style diner, so she was obligated to look like a Sixties styled waitress; teal mini skirt, white and teal polo, and white roller skates included.

It really didn't take her that long to strip out of her school uniform. The most time consuming task was folding up the dress so it wouldn't get wrinkled. Once down to her grey sports bra and black boy briefs, Keiko moved over to the garment bag and carefully unzipped it. She almost let out a horrified gasp at the contents before a graceless sentence slipped out of her mouth. "Wow! That's a lot of ruffles!"

It was a maid outfit and not just any maid outfit, mind you; it was a Victorian style Lolita maid outfit. Keiko detested Victorian style clothes. Too many bad memories associated with having to wear those ridiculous Southern Belle dresses for the Confederates parade whenever her parents would take her and her siblings to Martins Creek, Alabama (Not actually a real place.) every summer to visit their Great-Grandfather. It was so hot and the clothing was so stuffy it made her sweat like a pig.

She gingerly lifted the black and white dress out of the bag and hung it on one of the other hooks. "So do you two design clothes or something?" She asked pulling out a pair of white stockings with a lacey trim from the bag and a white garter belt. A small frown pulled at her lips and she wondered if she could get away with not wearing those items.

"Yeah our mother's a fashion designer," Kaoru said.

"Haven't you ever of Yuzuha Hitachiin, Blondie?"

"No. I don't really pay attention to clothes designers," she confessed, mentally deciding that she would save more time to just put on the stockings now than to be forced to put them on later. Bunching up the nylon fabric in her hands she slipped one of her feet into it and slid up to her thigh. "As long as the clothes fit and are comfortable I don't care who makes it or where they come from. Still it's kind of amazing that you two made this dress on your own. How long did it take you? It couldn't have taken two day…"

The brothers had been listening to the other girl talk and were surprised by the genuine compliment at their skills. Her ideas on clothes were a little disheartening; their mother would've been in tears hearing her say that. But then she abruptly cut off in the middle of a sentence and exclaimed somewhat angrily, "Hey, just exactly how long have you two been planning to put me in this dress!"

They both let out an amused chuckle at her sudden realization. It was the most emotion that they had ever heard her speak with. _"Wouldn't you like to know,"_ they laughed.

Keiko huffed as she secured the garter belt around her waist and attached the stockings to it. Those two were really too much sometimes. Still she couldn't deny that she was steadily warming up to them; which had partly to do with the fact that they reminded her of herself and Kazumi. It made her feel a bit nostalgic.

"We do?" Kaoru's surprised voice traveled from the other side of the curtain.

"Huh?" Keiko started trying to figure out what he was talking about. She replayed the last bit of the conversation in her head as she shrugged the main part of the dress over her body. The question didn't make any sense.

"We make you feel nostalgic, Blondie?"

The girl blushed not realizing she had said that out loud. "Yeah…" She sighed starting to work on the numerous buttons that the dress had. It was way too many buttons. She only buttoned about three of them before she huffed irately, "There's too many damn buttons! What are you two vampires or something? You don't need an invitation, get in here…"

Hikaru and Kaoru poked their heads through the curtain to see Keiko struggling to button up one of the sides of the dress. A strand of her long blonde hair had gotten tangled with one of the buttons. She tried helplessly to unwrap it all the while muttering under her breath in English. _"Stupid hair. Stupid dress. I hate dresses. Fuck!"_

_'I knew that lie was going to come back and bite me in the ass. I just never thought it would happen like this…'_ She groaned wondering why she told her brother she was in a butler café. She knew it was because if she had said anything about a Host Club he would immediately be come defensive. And while Hideki was an understanding person, it would be impossible for him not to get jealous if other guys were flirting with his girlfriend on a regular basis.

The twins shared an assumed look before stepping into the dressing room. "Hey stop pulling like that," Hikaru chided stilling her hands. "You're going to rip your hair out." His large hands encased hers and moved them, to her surprise gently, out of the way. Kaoru's own fingers were deftly doing up the buttons on her other side, his touch feather light on her skin.

Keiko shivered slightly. She wanted to shrink back away from the two boys at her sides. The close proximity was uncomfortable and suffocating. She never liked being this close to people. And if not for a few exceptions, she never was. In an effort of calm herself down the blonde decided to start talking.

"You two remind me of my sister. She'd likes wearing things like this, though she likes putting me in these kinds of outfits more," she remarked offhandedly. "Whenever she succeeded in dragging me to the mall, she'd always somehow got me into the frilliest outfit imaginable."

"We didn't know you had a sister," Karou said. The younger twin finished buttoning up his side of the dress, while Hikaru, having finally untangled Keiko's hair, stared working on the other two buttons. It was interesting to say the least. Hearing Keiko talk about herself, the girl rarely ever did; not in the couple weeks she'd been with the Host Club at least. Until they went over to her house, none of them were aware she even had a brother.

"Yeah, she's been living in California with our Aunt for the past two years. She loves it there from what I can tell. Even took up surfing which if you knew her is totally ironic because she's always detested fish…"

A soft laugh bubbled out of her throat as she recalled a memory. It was happy easy kind of laugh, unlike the girly giggling two days ago; this laugh was natural and fit perfectly with the girl's personality. It was neither loud or brash, nor flighty and quiet. It was reserved, but not cold, and it was girly, but not obnoxiously so.

They found the sound pleasant. It made them feel a bit warm and to be honest they wanted to hear it again. Still something told them that a sound like that didn't come from her often. Instead of commenting on it, Kaoru retrieved the little white apron from the garment bag and tied it securely around the girl's waist.

Hikaru twirled a lock of her hair around his fingers examining it in the light. "You have a lot of split ends," he observed.

Keiko turned and looked at the blonde hair wrapped around his index finger. The lights reflected off the strands causing the frayed ends to shimmer. "I know. I've been meaning to get it cut, but I keep forgetting," she explained tugging her hair from his hand.

She did really need a haircut; not just because of the split ends, but the length of it as well. The main reason she always wore her hair up in a ponytail was to keep it out of the way. When it wasn't in her ponytail her hair fell a little past her hips and keeping it up only made it fall about waist length. Still there were days like today, when even keeping in a ponytail didn't prevent it from snagging on something and had her thinking about hacking it all off. Maybe she could pull off Haruhi's haircut…

The feeling of a cloth material brushing against her throat had her jumping back the reality. She gasped stepping back and bumping into the warm body behind her. She hadn't noticed the other twin standing there. "Easy," Kaoru said fastening choker necklace around her neck. Once done he stepped away from her with a smile.

They both had really outdone themselves this time. The maid outfit had been something they had been working on for the past couple of weeks, well since Keiko had joined the Host Club actually. It had started as a revenge plan, however now that they were seeing the girl in the finished product it was more of a gift to them. The fact that Keiko was looking incredibly uncomfortable and, dare they say, a little embarrassed was just the icing on the cake.

…

"Oi, Kei!" Eri waved catching sight of her friend under the cherry blossom trees.

The blonde girl jumped and spun around. There was a click of a camera phone and a laugh from the small burnet. Keiko groaned. "You did not just take a picture of me," she said.

Eri ignoring the remark studied the picture on her phone. She had snapped the picture at the perfect moment. Keiko had been in the process of turning around and her expression that was usually difficult to read was open in surprise with a light blush flushing her face. She was even wearing her hair down for once. "Aww," she cooed, "isn't that precious! I think Kazu and Ry would love to have a copy of this."

The blonde's eyes widened. Ignoring what was socially acceptable, she lunged at the smaller girl reaching for the phone. "Don't you dare, Ri-chan!" She raised her voice causing a couple of the customers to look over curiously.

She couldn't let the other girl send a picture of her in a Maid outfit to her siblings. She would likely never hear the end of it from Ryan and Kazumi would tease her incessantly. If she could just reach...

"–Nope," the other girl laughed twisting out of the way. One hand moved the phone behind her back, her fingers working on composing a text message, as the other held Keiko away.

Still Keiko was undeterred; she kept reaching for the phone. At some point, the blonde wound up draped on her friend's back helplessly grabbing at the air. Eri managed to keep moving the phone out of the way until Keiko's hand shot out and gripped her wrist. The sudden movement scared her causing her fingers to falter on the keys.

_[Message Sent To All Contacts.]_

"Oops," she squeaked.

"What did you do?" Keiko peered around her head to look at the screen.

Eri chuckled nervously. "I accidentally sent it to all my contacts…" She started.

"–What!" The phone was snatched from her hands and Keiko kneeled on the grass not even caring about grass stains or the white stockings she was wearing. Her fingers tapped he screen quickly as she kept repeating, "Nononono… Please no…"

"They really shouldn't put the send button next to the send all button," Eri finished.

Meanwhile on the other side of the lawn, Haruhi knelt observing her two sempais conducting a traditional tea ceremony. The girl used the word traditional very loosely. In truth, Mitsukuni, despite his best intentions, wasn't doing a very good job. More of the tea was ending up outside of the bowl than in it.

_'Should I tell him?'_ She thought glancing over to the two customers. The two girls shared equal looks of uneasiness as the watched the blond boy stir the tea with a wooden whisk. Only Takashi looked the most natural kneeling quietly next to his cousin with an unreadable expression on his face.

Suddenly the taller boy leaned over to his cousin. "Mitsukuni," the dark haired senior said blankly, "you over did it."

_'He told him!'_

The blond froze and looked down at the bowl. Lifting the wooden whisk, there was only a small puddle of the green tea remaining. The rest of the tea, suffice to say, ended up outside the bowl. Mitsukuni's face twisted into an expression of despondency; tears began to congeal in his eyes.

"Aww, no! Honey-san I'll take it," one of the customers said snatching up the bowl. A painfully fake smile on her face as she attempted, very poorly Haruhi thought, to cheer the blond sempai up. "It looks so yummy!" Then she took a small sip from the bowl, but not before the briefest flashes of a grimace crossed her face. _'Bitter…'_

The other girl was quick to chime in as well. "It's just the right amount for both of us. Anymore would be too much. You never cease to amazing me," she complimented before taking the bowl from her friend and raising it to her lips. The same brief grimace came over her face as well once the tea touched her tongue. _'Ugh! That's bitter…'_

"Really, you think so?" He asked seeming to have missed the girl's micro-expressions.

"Mm… definitely," they replied shooting a terse look towards the other. On the other side of the mat, Haruhi turned her head away from the scene and sighed. _'I can't believe he bought that…'_

Mitsukuni's smile was less pronounced as he passed the girls a tray of _Chasoba-zushi._ He knew that the tea was probably terrible. He had never quite mastered making it, something that his younger brother, Yasuchika, liked to point out. Still it made him happy that they thought to spare his feelings. "Would you like some?" He offered tilting his head cutely.

The girls nodded; quickly snatching up a couple pieces and popping them in their mouths. Hopefully this would get rid of the taste on their tongues. He set the tray down and looked over to Haruhi. "Say, Haru-chan don't you think the flowers are pretty?"

"Mm? Oh yeah," the female host agreed turning back around.

"–but it's not as pretty as you ladies, of course!" Mitsukuni chirped. It was such a cheesy line; yet it still caused the two customers to turn a light shade of pink. It was then that a muted buzzing noise, muffled by the layers of his _kimono_ , reached his ears. He tucked his hand in to his robes and pulled out his cell phone. Flipping it open, his eye scanned over the screen.

_[1 New Text Message.]_

The blond mentally shrugged clicking the key on the keypad to open it. "Ha!" The laugh escaped from his mouth before he could stop it. Everyone stopped to stare at him. "It's nothing," he assured them flipping the phone closed and sliding it back into his _kimono_. "So Nobu-chan, how is your horse doing?"

The girl, Nobuko, swallowed her sushi then said, "He's doing fine. We've been practicing for the upcoming show this April…" She continued to describe the amount of practicing she had been doing after school and Mitsukuni nodded along absently. His mind was still on other things, more specifically the text that he had received from Eri. It brought a smile to his face just thinking about it.

_From: Sasaki Eri  
Message: Isn't she cute?! XD 3 3 3_

One thing was for sure, the boy was definitely saving that photo to his phone.

"Hey come on, Kei." Eri said placing her hand on her friends shoulder. "It's lost in cyberspace, there's nothing you can do."

Keiko sighed.

"Are you mad?"

She wasn't. There was no point in being angry, though it would've been justified. The emotion she was feeling was more of a grudging acceptance. What's done is done, there's no changing the past. But that didn't mean she wouldn't pay her back. "No."

"Then what's with that face?" She asked warily. Her expression was unreadable. Eri hadn't the slightest clue what she was thinking or feeling and she learned that that was never good thing. Whenever Keiko got like this, it was usually right before she pulled one of her elaborate pranks.

"It's nothing," the other girl assured her standing up and brushing the dirt from her costume. "I was just thinking of the last time Kazumi took a picture like that. I stole it from her and kept it **under** the bed **where** she stuck all of those shoe boxes. I guess this one won't be so easy to get rid of. I really hope it doesn't end up on some **web** site –that would be some **feat** ** _._** "

"I'm sure it won't get that bad," Eri said optimistically.

"Yeah you're probably right," she agreed handing Eri back her cell phone. "If it does I'll just **duck** behind you **tomorrow**."

The burnet laughed at that. There would be no ducking behind her, she was too short standing at a minute height of 149 centimeters (4'11 ft.), and even if Keiko somehow managed it she would stick out like a sore thumb. "You're going to have to crouch down a lot."

The blonde seemed to rethink that idea and smiled. "No… that really wouldn't **fly** , huh?"

"Nope…" Eri trailed beside the blonde as they made their way over to the area which the other hosts sat. There were four different tables, not counting the sturdy mat at which Haruhi and the two third-years sat, designated for each host. Tamaki was throwing outlandish compliments at the four girls sitting at his table. It would've have been ridiculous and fake had it been anyone else, but the Host King's honest personality made each one genuine. Kyoya was busy typing on his laptop in between waiting for customers; Keiko had found out that he managed all the finances for the club so she assumed that he was probably trying to figure out how to use the profits to cover the cost of the theme that day. Hikaru and Kaoru, no surprise, were entertaining their guests with their usual antics and twin-cestous lines. Everything was proceeding as normal and despite the cosplay theme it was no different than being in the clubroom.

"–Kya! That's it I can't take it anymore! Too much," One of the customer's voice carried over the garden. Like usual the twins' antics had caused the girl to blush a deep shade of crimson after being subjected to a contrived spiel from Hikaru. So making the sensible choice she turned her head away from the _Brotherly-Love Package_ taking place right in front of her least she faint from a _Moe_ overload.

Her friend, a die-hard _Yao_ fan, scolded her for the missed opportunity. "What are you doing?" She hissed. "Don't turn away. Who knows when we'll get another chance to see this…"

"You're quite right, Princess." Kyoya drawled appearing behind the two; an act that was more mysterious than creepy. He took one of the cherry blossoms off the tree overhead and examined it; the soft pink petals contrasting with his creamy complexion. "Moments like these are so fleeting. Like this flower, they are in a constant state of decay; eroding away until they are nothing but a memory. So that is why I've taken it upon myself to compile these picture books that capture the Hosts in their day-to-day lives…" He held up four five different books with laminated covers of the boys faces, "And for a limited time the whole set is at a discounted price."

"–I'll buy them!"

"Me too!"

The two red-headed twins watched the scene unfold in front of them. Of course the Shadow King was still the shadiest person in the club, but who would've ever thought that he'd be so… _manipulative_. It was impressive how the older boy could switch topics and have a hoard of girls clambering over to him buy photobooks. "It makes you wonder though…" Karou started trailing off before his brother looked over sharing the same thought.

_'How did he get those pictures of us?'_

Unbeknownst to the rest of the club, those pictures were taken by the club's only other female member. Keiko thought that the request was more than just a little strange when Kyoya asked, no ordered, her to follow around the Hosts and snap pictures of them. She had had no idea what he intended to use them for. And had she known she never would've given them to him in the first place because like Mitsukuni's tea skills, Keiko's photography talents were sorely lacking.

A small frown formed at the corners of her mouth after her eyes caught a glimpse of one of the photobooks. _'Well that's just great!'_ She turned to her side where Eri had been standing only to find said girl missing attempting to push her way through the mob of girls. _'Even better…'_

Instead of making a scene, however, she gathered up some over the dirty plates and teacups to take back to the clubroom. Coming over to the twins' table she picked up a split cup of tea and put it in her bin; eyes flickering over to the twin closest to her. The boy stood next to his brother watching the chaos in front of them, carrying himself in his usual relaxed manner. Nonetheless, there was something off about it.

"Hey what happened to your hand?" She blurted out after noticing the slightly redden blotches that covered his fingers. She acted without thinking, grabbing the startled boy's hand to examine it. Years of living with an accident prone Ryan had made stuff like this second nature to her. "It looks like a burn. Is it one? You shouldn't leave it like this, Hitachiin-san."

Stuffing her hand into one of the dress's pockets and pulling out a bandage and a small tube of Aloe Vera, she gestured for him to sit down. Kaoru looked at the chair and then looked at her. "It's really not that bad…"

"–Stop being such a baby," she scolded and grabbed his wrist then pushed him into a chair. Suffice to say, the forcefulness of her voice was something that he had never been exposed to. She was like a mother, not his mother because his had never really been around to patch up his cuts and scrapes, but like what he imagined a mother to be like. In truth, it was a little intimidating so he didn't argue as she carefully wrapped up his fingers after smearing the cloth with the aloe.

Hikaru tilted his head curiously. "Do you always have medical supplies in your pocket, Blondie?"

"Of course," she answered securing the bandages with a couple strips of medical tape. "It's one of things I learned from having a klutz for a brother –there, we're done – _In omnia paratus,_ be ready for anything. It's kind of my life motto." She stood up and hoisted the bin of dishes in to her arms. "I'll be back in a bit. I got to take these back to the clubroom."

The brothers watched her go. She was certainly becoming a very interesting toy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so it's a day late, but Merry Christmas everybody! In the spirit of the season, I wanted to get one more chapter out before the New Year. Thank you to everyone who's read and continued to read this story. I've never expected such a response. :) Please continue to do so. Here's to a New Year! Hope it'll be a great one!


	7. Operation Haruhi Fujioka is Definitely a Guy

**OHSHC: The Hosts' Maid is the Shy Type**  
Chapter 7  
"Operation Haruhi Fujioka is Definitely a Guy"

* * *

In the time it took for Keiko to make it back to the clubroom, the Host Club had started another round of shenanigans. What does that mean? Well, let's just say that someone *cough –blond idiot –cough* had remembered that Physical Examination day was tomorrow. And said person, instead of behaving like a normal person and coming up with a reasonable plan to keep 'Haruhi's Secret', decided that best way to keep the entire school from finding out that he was actually a she was to take her place in the exam.

Yes, it really is as stupid as it sounds.

"I can't believe he actually did it!" Hikaru laughed pointing at the other boy. He clutched his side, whilst Kaoru was having difficulty breathing from laughing so hard.

Okay –wait, I should back up a bit and explain.

…

You see, yesterday afternoon Keiko had finished washing the dishes and had just stepped into the main part of the clubroom before stopping in her tracks at seeing all the other hosts present. All still in their cosplay outfits too, I might add. The blonde looked around the room perplexed. There was still about thirty minutes before club ended.

"Hey what's going on?" She asked. They were all crowded around Tamaki was he sat in a plush chair with a rather dopey expression on his face. She walked up to him and waved her hand in front of his face. "Uhh… _Sempai?"_

"He must be having a great daydream!" Mitsukuni remarked a mischievous smile on his face. His smile was no longer cute, not after what happened before club. Keiko had a feeling that she knew exactly what he was thinking.

"Well he's kind of creeping me out," Hikaru said.

Suddenly, the Host King perked up rising from his seat so quickly that Keiko, who had been leaning over him curiously, barely had the time to jump back and avoid his head knocking into her chin. "Are you jealous, Hikaru?" He boasted, "It's becoming clear to me now. We're obviously in a Romantic School comedy and Haruhi and I are the main love interests!"

"What's he going on about?" Keiko questioned turning to the others.

"Knowing him it's something stupid," Kyoya replied bluntly.

The twins shared a look. _"Then what are we?"_ They asked.

"You guys are the Homo side characters!" He told them before pulling out a stick of chalk from who-knows-where and drawing a white line on the floor between them. "So please don't cross this line…"

Keiko stared at the little white line in front of her toes. "Okay," she muttered darkly, "I don't know what's going on, but he's kinda pissing me off right now."

"Ditto," Kaoru agreed.

"Look _Tono_ , I don't think you get it," the older twin started.

"–if they find out Haru-chan is a girl in tomorrow's exams, then she won't be able to be in the Host Club anymore," the blond senior explained. "But if she started wearing girls' clothes than I'm sure she'd be even cuter than she is now."

"She dressed like a normal girl in middle school, right? She must've been pretty popular with the guys…"

"Yeah. According to my reports, someone would confess their undying love at least once a month," Kyoya informed them.

"So Tama-chan wouldn't be able to get near her," Mitsukuni concluded.

_"But we'd be able to because we're in the same class!"_ The twins reasoned casting a glance at their sempai, who up until now was joyful and excited at the prospect of Haruhi's gender being found out, looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

"No way…"

Now everything was beginning to click. This was about Haruhi being found out at tomorrow's physical exams. It was something that should've been obvious to them and to be honest it was surprising that they were just figuring this out now. Wasn't Tamaki the Headmaster's son? Shouldn't he know? And Kyoya –wait no, Keiko didn't believe that the dark-haired second year didn't already know; knowing him there was already a plan in place, but he was probably just sitting back and watching for his own amusement.

It was around this time that Haruhi exited the prep room back in her school uniform; she had slipped away to change in all the commotion. Like Keiko her eyes trailed over the guy's worried faces and she opened her mouth to ask, however before she could Tamaki materialized in front of her and gripped her shoulders tightly leaning in a bit too close. "Don't worry, Haruhi! _Otou-san_ won't let you be taken away! So please, please promise me that you'll continue to be the club's secret Princess!"

Haruhi blinked. "Uh…sure," she agreed. But it was the kind of sure that Tamaki thought it was, an okay-let's-do-this kind of sure, it was a I-don't-what's-going-on-so-I'm-going-to-nod-and-smile-and-hope-it's-not-anything-too-crazy kind of sure.

…

Operation Haruhi Fujioka is definitely a guy, or Operation Trojan Horse as Keiko called it, took off without a hitch. At least it was until Tamaki had stepped out from behind the white curtain for Haruhi's chest measurements. To be fair, it was a terrible plan to begin with, but Keiko still couldn't help the immediate face palm she did at the sight.

On either side of her stood Mitsukuni and Takashi, both dressed as doctors for whatever reason (she didn't care enough to ask), snickering quietly. Yes, that's right even the stone-faced Mori-sempai was chuckling under his breath. It looked as if Operation Trojan Horse was more of an excuse to prank the Host King.

"I told you they would!" Kaoru's voice carried over the crowd.

"You jerks!" He shouted pushing his way through the crowd. Tamaki grabbed Hikaru first and shook him angrily. "You said there was no way they'd be able to tell it was me," he yelled.

"This is payback for calling us the Homo side characters," the boy laughed.

As entertaining as it was, Keiko had to go do her physical exam so she couldn't stay and watch. "I'll seeya guys later," she said giving them a brief wave before making her way over to one of the nurses. Prior to her finding one though she was approached by a man in a white lab coat, that would've looked like a doctor if not for his shabby appearance that made him stand out.

"Excuse me, Miss," he said placing a hand on the blonde's shoulder. Keiko eyed him warily, her nose picking up the not so subtle stench of alcohol from his breath. It wasn't an entirely unfamiliar smell, memories of Ryan's booze-breath coming to mind.

"Yes, Sir?" She prompted.

The man was swaying on his feet a little, another obvious sign that he wasn't completely sober, and leaned toward her. With his lack of depth perception that ended up being a lot closer than she liked. "I was wondering if you could help me. You see, I'm looking for my daughter who goes here," he said. "Her name's Yabu, Yabu Tsubaki."

Keiko thought it over. She wasn't that good with names and something told her that this man's daughter probably didn't even go to this school. It was more likely he was just a drunk who was lost. "Umm… why don't you come with me?" She suggested.

"Okay, sure," he nodded. The man took a staggering step forward and Keiko instantly reached out to steady him. "Thank you."

"No problem." She led the drunk doctor over to an empty examination room. Then sitting him down on the examination table she told him to wait for her to come back. Hopefully he would do as she said and wait. Maybe even sleep off the booze and sober up a bit more. There was really no telling what someone like him would do because she didn't know what kind of drunk he was; an angry drunk or a happy one, or a silly drunk or a depressed one.

Keiko had been around enough drunkards to be able to spot the destructive ones, and the good news was that this man didn't seem to be destructive. So she figured it could wait for her to get done with her physical exam. It wouldn't take as long as the other girls, because unlike them she didn't insist that they retake her weight and chest measurements a dozen times if they came out being a number she didn't like.

Once she was through with her examine, Keiko noticed Eri crouched down on the floor. She looked, with no better way of putting it, like she was about to throw up what with her head in her lap and making strange moaning noises. "Ri-chan are you okay?" She asked.

The other girl shook her head.

"What's wrong?"

A small groan was the only answer.

"Are you sick?"

"No."

"Then what is it?"

Eri heaved a deep sigh, her shoulders shuddering, and lifted her head to face her friend. This action allowed Keiko to see the bright red blush that covered her face. "I'm so embarrassed!" She said. "Of all the days to wear my ducky underwear, why did it have to be today? Stupid, stupid –such an idiot move. I'm so mad at myself…"

Keiko looked away briefly covering her mouth with her hand. "Pft. Hehe…"

The smaller girl turned her head and narrowed her eyes. "Keiko," she said slowly, "did you have something to do with this? Wait! No! You did that thing didn't you?"

"What thing?" She repeated innocently.

"That thing! That Nero-Language thing!" She shouted. Some passersby glanced over curiously at the outburst and Eri quickly lowered her voice. "You totally mind fucked me, didn't you?

"I think you mean Nero-Linguistic Programing," Keiko replied," and I didn't mind fuck you…I just made a sublet suggestion."

"–To wear my ducky underwear?"

Yep," she nodded. "Just think of it as payback for the photo. Now we're even." The burnet groaned shaking her head. She had called it yesterday. Keiko had been planning something, but who would've thought it be something like this? It was so manipulative, almost sociopathic –exactly how she used to be before.

Thinking about it now, this may have been the most relaxed she'd seen her since the accident. Eri turned speculative as she looked over the other girl. _'Wow! Maybe Honey-sempai was right?'_ She never thought that the plan would actually end up working, that getting Keiko dragged into the Host Club wouldn't change a thing; but instead it was actually making a difference, albeit a small one.

It made her want to smile.

…

Meanwhile, jumping back to the drunk doctor, who up until this moment had been patiently waiting for the schoolgirl to return, began to finally take in his surroundings. The _sake_ had gradually started to wear off leaving his brain muddled and his head with a piercing headache. He remembered most of everything from the past couple hours, yet there were still blank spots; bits and pieces that he couldn't remember. The man knew he was looking for his daughter and he could clearly recall a young blonde girl guiding him to the cubical where he was now. It was just the tiny things like not knowing how he got from his house to the school that he is in now or how he got dragged into the physical exams.

Sitting up, the doctor groaned and rubbed his eyes tiredly. The florescent lights overhead were doing nothing to curb the splitting pain of his hangover. "Why did I drink so much?" he wondered hunching over the cot as a wave of nausea hit him.

Fortunately, it passed quickly and the man maneuvered himself off the cot; vertigo causing him to sway slightly on his feet. He made his way over to the little table of medical supplies, looking through the many plastic pill bottles and finding the one he wanted popped off the cap and took two of the Aspirin tablets in his palm. Then he went and picked up one of the many unopened water bottles sitting on the shelf under the table. He had never been good at swallowing pills without water or something to make them go down easier.

Once that was done, the doctor retook his seat on the cot. He sipped leisurely at the water bottle all the while casting glances at the curtain where Keiko would emerge. There was just one thing though, the girl didn't come. It had been maybe fifteen, twenty minutes and still there was no sign of the blonde girl. He decided to wait until he finished his bottle of water before he would go and look for his daughter himself. But as the twenty-five-minute mark rolled around, Keiko had still not returned, and having finished with his water the man concluded that she probably wasn't coming back.

He hoisted himself up from the cot and pushed through the curtain.

Outside, crowds of students moved to and fro between each station. It was a sea of pale yellow dresses and blue blazers dotted with pink nurses' caps and white lab coats. Maneuvering through the mass of bodies, bumping against a couple along the way to which he apologized, the man picked out another student to ask about his daughter.

The girl had a remarkable resemblance to Keiko, at least from the back with her dark blonde hair in a ponytail, and that was mainly why the doctor approached her. He grasped her shoulder harder than he should've; annoyed that she had left him in that room. But when the girl turned around with a fearful look on her face, he knew he had made a mistake. "Excuse me," he said backpedaling, "I'm looking for…"

…

"AH! Somebody help!"

Keiko immediately whirled around when she heard that scream. "Shit!" She cursed.

Eri stood up and moved to take a step toward all the commotion. "What was that?" Looking to the blonde for an answer, but getting none.

"I'll explain later. I just need you to come with me now," she told her and grabbing the smaller girl's wrist she pulled her through the crowd in the opposite direction. Keiko didn't stop until she arrived at the examination room where she'd left the drunk. Her break was so sudden that Eri barely had time to slow down before crashing into her back.

"Keiko what's going on?" She questioned peering over the blonde's shoulder into the empty exam room. She was confused as to what was happening. Why where they looking into an unoccupied cubical? Shouldn't they be on the other side of the room with everyone else?

The blonde girl step into the room turning her head this way than that like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. She cursed again, a harsh hiss, and whipped her head around to Eri waiting patiently at the entrance. "He's not here. I told him to wait here," she spat angrily.

"Who's not here?"

"The doctor," Keiko explained, "at least I think he was doctor. He was wearing a lab coat, but what do I know he could've just taken it from somewhere."

Eri took a step into the room and placed her hand on Keiko's arm. "Wait, slow down. You're not making any sense," she told her. "You're looking for a doctor?"

Keiko nodded. "A drunk doctor," she responded, "but I don't think he was –a doctor I mean, he didn't look much like a doctor. Too scruffy looking, I guess. He was mumbling something about his daughter and I took him here to lie down, but now he's not here."

"So what you're saying is there's a possible drunk maniac on the loose?" Eri hissed worriedly.

"Well," Keiko started speculative, "I don't think he's dangerous; just confused and definitely not sober."

That didn't make Eri feel any better. Sure, she understood that Keiko didn't think him to be dangerous, but that was before he supposedly attacked someone '– _wait! They never did go check on that girl.'_

"That was before he assaulted some girl…"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Eri. We don't know if that's what happened," Keiko reasoned. "Besides, I need to find him. I did kinda promise to help him find his daughter after all."

"And you want me to help you," she sighed.

This wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened. As if she could forget the train jumping incident when they were nine or picking the locks on Mr. Jelly's apartment to replace his Betta fish at eleven. Growing up with Keiko had prepared her for this. So hunting down a drunk doctor shouldn't be hard, and it definitely shouldn't be as terrifying as jumping onto a moving train. "Okay, fine I'll help," she said her voice hardening in resolve.

"Thank you," Keiko smiled.

"Yeah, whatever… this just better not be the octopus-ice-cream disaster of `02," she quipped pushing her way back out through the curtain. Keiko followed.

…

Unknown to the girls, the drunk doctor had already been found by a very disgruntled Host Club. After the girl screamed, it was only a matter of overhearing her sobbing that the man had headed toward the Special Boys Clinic before all six host were sprinting down the hall to rescue their female club member. It was quite a shock when they came bursting into her dressing room seconds after the Dr. Yabu.

"Tama-chan kick!" Tamaki had yelled theatrically spinning on his foot and preforming a fairly decent roundhouse on the presumed to be pervert. It had been a reasonable assumption considering that the man had 'attacked' another student and was now barging in another's dressing room. He had walked into the wrong the dressing room.

Of course, the doctor was stunned and only vaguely aware of the speech that the young men were making; something about wealth and power. The kick did nothing for his already mild headache, actually it simply made it worse, however he was coherent enough to know that he had obviously made a mistake…again, ugh. Haruhi could only stand there, clutching her discarded uniform shirt to her chest to preserve what little decency she had left, while wondering why it was that people kept barging in on her changing.

Seriously, this was like the second time… third actually, if you counted the doctor and the host club separately.

Dr. Yabu flinched at the glares he was receiving from the male hosts. "Please," he bowed, "spare my life. I'm a doctor. I own a small emergency clinic in the next town over…My name's Yabu."

"Oh, so he really is a doctor," Kyoya commented making a mental note of that information.

"Did he just say his name's Yabu?" Kaoru wondered. Hikaru nodded; something that could be considered at laugh, but was far closer to a scoff escaping his lips. "What a terrible name for a doctor…"

"Unless you're a quack," Hikaru added.

The doctor nodded in agreement to the twins' little quip about his name. "I know. I'm here because I was hoping to see my daughter. My wife left me last month and took my daughter with her, but I know she attends school here…"

Haruhi recovered quickly, shrugging on the shirt that Tamaki had given her. "I don't mean to pry," she said, "but why did your wife and daughter leave you?"

_[Suddenly, it's his whole life story.]_

"Well you see, it was after a particularly long day and I had just finished giving Mr. Saito his usual insulin shot. He came in ever over day for it because he was too afraid of needles to do it himself. Anyways, he wasn't in the best financial situation, and not the only one like that as my clinic took mostly walk-ins who couldn't afford a hospital, so I said that he could pay me back when he had the money. But my wife…"

_"You let him give you an I-O-U again? You promised you wouldn't do that anymore!"_

"–What was I supposed to do? Telling him he needed to pay me wouldn't have made a difference. It's not like he could materialize money out of thin air. And I told her this…"

_"That's it! I've had enough. My mother was right about you; you care more for your patients than providing for you own family! I'll be at mother's until you get your priorities straight! Come on, Tsubaki!"_

"And so my wife left and my daughter went with her," he finished.

The hosts had varying reactions to this story. Takashi, in typical Mori-Sempai fashion, was stone-faced; showing neither unease, like Haruhi, or contempt, like the twins. Kyoya was the complete opposite of Tamaki, looking on with thinly veiled disinterest. And Mitsukuni, in untypical Honey-sempai fashion, was frowning. It was only the blond Host King that reacted to the story like you'd expect him to react…

By weeping.

Haruhi cast a curious glance over at the blond second-year. She watched as he pulled a cloth handkerchief out of god-knows-where and dapped at his eyes. It like he was a mother watching her daughter get married or something. She didn't quite know what to make of it, so she decided to ignore it.

It was what everyone else was doing too.

"I know I'm terrible at managing our money," he continued. "And I can't say no to anybody. I don't blame them for being tired of constantly living in debt. But I wanted to see my daughter more time, so I came here. After being pelted by rain and wandering the street I finally made it to your school. Once I arrived I was mistaken for a doctor, here to examine students..."

"Duh, you're wearing a lab coat," Hikaru remarked. "Anyone would mistake you."

The doctor didn't notice the slight as he finished his story with flair of dramatics. "–And that's when it happened. I tried asking a girl for help, but she thought I was a pervert and started screaming. Now, I have all these security guards chasing me!" By now the man was sobbing into his coat sleeve, which in turn caused Tamaki to sob with him.

"That's so tragic!" He wailed.

This was the scene that Eri Sasaki walked in on.

…

Much to Eri's dismay, Keiko decided that the quickest way of finding the so called doctor was to split up. The blonde headed in the opposite direction to the special girls' clinic, Eri resigned herself to the boys'. To be honest, she really, really didn't want to be alone right now.

Now, Eri didn't think herself to be afraid-y cat by any means. But there's a difference between being frightened by a mouse and tracking down a possible dangerous intruder; the latter was just asking for trouble.

The petite girl walked down the empty corridor, her heels echoing off the tile floor. As she walked, she kept going over that self-defense course her parents had her take. "When faced with an attacker always aim for the weak points –eyes, throat, sternum, groin…" she repeated under her breath. She didn't quiet remember what to do after that, so it was a good thing that she hadn't come across him yet.

"Maybe Kei will have better luck," she sighed, approaching the end of the hallway. Stopping at the door that led into the clinic, Eri froze when she heard a man's voice, muffled by the door, carry out into the hallway.

"Now, I have all these security guards chasing me!"

He sounded like he was the verge of a breakdown. Eri hesitated to open the door, until she heard a distinctly familiar voice chime in. "That's so tragic!" That was Tamaki-sempai no doubt about it. But what was he doing with the intruder?

Curiosity got the better of her. And not a moment later she was pushing open the door. What saw, however, had her wishing that she hadn't.

Tamaki was shirtless, crouching next to a disheveled man in a lab coat, who she assumed was this so called doctor, and both of them had tears streaming down their faces. The doctor was mumbling something about his daughter, while the blond patted him on the shoulder and none of it was making any sense. Her eyes flickered past the two of them to the other Host Club members in an attempt to put together the missing pieces. But that only left her with more questions when she saw Haruhi in the middle, clutching a white uniform shirt –that was several sizes too big – closed in an attempt to conceal his… _'Bra?'_

_'Is that a bra? Haruhi is a…Ohhh!'_ Eri's expression lit with the realization. Haruhi's a girl.

"Wait –Haruhi is a girl?" She yelled and everyone's eyes turned to her. She didn't mean to say that last part out loud and judging by the hosts' expressions it was also a mistake.

Kyoya's glasses glinted in the sunlight. "Sasaki-hime, I suggest you close that door."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's here! Chapter seven everybody and man am I glad I got this one out of the way. I don't really like writing the chapters that follow the episodes. You'd think it'd be easier because I have half the dialogue already written for me, but it's not! I tell you that's what makes it harder. I've read too many fanfics where all the person did was copy the episode word for word. And honestly, if I wanted to a word by word replay, I'd rather watch the episode. It's somewhat of a challenge to come up with new stuff and write the scenes in an original way. I try though, and I'd like to think that so far I'm doing a fairly decent job in that respect. I certainly didn't expect that ending.
> 
> Anyways, thank you for all of you who have read, commented, kudo, and subscribed this. You guys rock! As always please leave any thoughts, critiques, or suggestions in the comments and I'll see ya guys later.


	8. Test of Character

**OHSHC: The Host's Maid is the Shy Type  
Chapter 8  
** ****_"Test of Character"_

* * *

Eri's experience with the Host Club was limited to that of a customer. She drank tea and ate cake whilst discussing random topics like the weather or classes. The atmosphere was always lighthearted –until now, that is. Now, Eri was no longer just a customer. She was a threat to the club.

The young woman was beginning to question all the props the club had. This was supposed to be a music room. Yet sometime between traveling from the Special Boys' Clinic to the clubroom, it had been transformed into a police interrogation scene from an American Crime Drama. Now, she was seated at rickety table in a cold metal chair with a bright desk lamp shining in her face.

"Come on guys," Keiko scoffed from one of the sofas, "is all this really necessary?" Beside her, Haruhi sat working on her Japanese History report. The burnet was too absorbed in her work to be the voice of reason and the guys simply ignored her comment.

Kyoya adjusted his glasses and addressed Eri. "Well now that the secret is out, I guess it's time to negotiate. Sasaki-san, for purposes that shall remained unnamed, Haruhi has to conceal her gender. Now, we can't forbid you from spreading this information. But you should keep in mind that as someone of our social status I'm sure you've heard of the Black Onion Squad. It would be very unwise to share this information," he said.

Eri blinked and shifted away looking rather sick. "So basically you're threatening me."

"Not at all," he dissuaded, "It's simply a reminder that there are people in this school it'd best not to cross."

"I wasn't going to tell anyone. I mean the only person I'd even consider telling is Keiko, but she already seems to know," She mumbled. "Honestly, I feel pretty stupid for not realizing it sooner. I mean now that I know it's fairly obvious. Her facial features are decidedly female and the way she carries herself is a dead giveaway; though, I guess her voice is a pitch lower than the average girl. But I'm kind of curious, how did Keiko find out?"

She looked to the male hosts for answer, which none of them gave. In fact, they all seemed slightly perplexed by the question. "She just kind of knew," Kaoru drawled vaguely. Eri turned around in her chair and gazed curiously at the blonde.

"What, I didn't tell you this story?" Keiko asked eyes darting to Eri before taking in the interested expressions of the other club members. Even Haruhi had stopped reading her textbook, while she waited for the other girl to explain.

"Not that I can remember," she replied.

Keiko was bemused by that, yet she simply shrugged, sat back onto the sofa and began her tale.

…

It was during the first day of school that Keiko and Haruhi had both crossed paths. Of course at the time, both were unrecognizable to each other.

Haruhi had recently taken a pair of scissors and chopped off all her hair after a horrible gum fiasco. And with her grandfather's glasses –that she'd been forced to wear when her father, Ryoji Fujioka more commonly known as Ranka at the _okama_ bar he worked at, accidently mistook her contact solution for a glass of water after a particularly heavy night of drinking –it made her gender almost indistinguishable to the other students.

Keiko hadn't fared much better. The day before, she had had to break up very nasty fight at the diner that she worked. Blows were exchanged, property was damaged –there might've been a baseball bat involved –and the restaurant was closed until the repairs could be made, but the icing on the cake was her black-eye, swollen lip, and fractured wrist. She was lucky it wasn't anything worse. Had she broken her leg or something like that, the girl would have lost her scholarship.

Neither of them were having a good first day. Each girl had made a terrible first impression on their class. Haruhi's classmates were debating whether or not Haruhi was a guy's name, while Keiko's classmates thought her to be a _yakuza's_ daughter or one of those _yanki-student_ type girls. Not one of them had attempted to befriend them, and in Keiko's case went out of their ways to avoid her. Eri was still vacationing with her family and wouldn't be back until the second week of school, so there was no one to correct the rumors.

And like anyone having a terrible day, they both needed to escape somewhere. But without knowing the campus that well, the only place they knew where to go was the girls' bathroom on the second floor by the first-years' classrooms.

Haruhi thought it both ridiculous and wasteful the amount of money Ouran spent on things. Sure, she understood it was a school for the rich; but did they really need marble countertop cherubs in the bathroom? The burnet looked around the room a frown pulling at her lips. This bathroom looked like it belonged in a five-star hotel and not a high school. _'They even have seashell-shaped soaps,'_ she sighed.

She wondered just how she was going to fit in there. Everything there was so foreign, she didn't know how to react. These kids were nothing like the ones she went to middle school with. It wasn't just the money, but these kids seemed to have their heads in the clouds. All they talked about were the vacations they took or lessons in flower arranging or tea ceremonies; nothing that had any real world applications. Studying seemed to be that last thing on their minds.

Haruhi walked past the shining golden faucets, that she hoped weren't real gold, to one of the bathroom stalls. She went in, closed the door behind her, then turned. "You've got to be kidding me… I've never seen a toilet this clean," she muttered. She half expected a maid to pop out of it, knowing this place it seemed like a real possibility.

_"I don't know how to do this."_

Those words traveled over from the next stall. Haruhi glanced up to the small gap separating the wall from the ceiling. She hadn't been aware someone else was actually in the bathroom, so she was a little surprised. What was more surprising still was that her exact thoughts were spoken aloud. "Are you alright?" She asked.

Keiko jumped, glancing at the gap between the stalls. Great. She hadn't thought anyone would hear that, but apparently not. Looking back down at the fancy toilet and all its twenty something buttons, she debated whether or not to tell the stranger in the next stall that she had no idea how to flush it. The other girl would probably laugh and Keiko was sure that she'd be labeled the scholarship student that didn't know how to do something as simple as flushing a toilet.

"Yes. I'm okay. It's just…" she trailed off looking over the buttons again, "this toilet. It's too fancy."

Haruhi nodded her head in agreement, though the other girl couldn't see. "I know what you mean. And what's with all the buttons? It looks like something out of a Sci-fi film."

Keiko breathed a sigh of relief. This girl didn't seem so bad. It was the first friendly person she had met at this fancy school. "I know right! I can't even figure out how to flush the damn thing. All they had at my middle-school was squat toilets not any of these _washlets_." she said.

Haruhi turned introspective as she looked over electronic control panel on the wall. The little symbols on the buttons didn't make much sense. There were five main buttons; two buttons with a number 3 turned on its side and bunch of blue dots underneath it, one had a person sitting on a series of purple dots, another was an ominous looking orange button with a black square in the middle, and the last just looked like a strip of bacon.

Curious, Haruhi hit one of the blue dot buttons. There was a whirring noise from her toilet, then a stream of water shot up out of the bowl like the Peeing-Boy fountain by the maze garden. "Huh? It's not the blue buttons. That just shoots up water…"

"You mean like a duvet?" Keiko wondered.

"I think you mean _bidet,_ " Haruhi corrected. "And yeah."

The blonde bit her lip looking at the control panel. So if the blue ones' wash butts, then what does the purple one do? She jabbed it. Another mechanical whirring noise filled her stall and then something that sounded a lot like a hairdryer kicked in. "It's not the purple one. I wonder what this bacon button is?"

"It's probably a seat warmer," Haruhi mused.

"On a school toilet?" Keiko scoffed, "This place just keeps getting more and more pretentious."

Haruhi hummed, her eyes squinting as she read over the dozen or so smaller buttons. Because she was wearing her grandfather's old glasses, the prescription wasn't exactly right so the Kanji symbols were a little blurry. But despite this, the girl eventually found the button they had been looking for.

"Found it!" She called out triumphantly.

"Where?"

"It's on the top edge, above the five man buttons," Haruhi told her.

Keiko smiled and pushed the button for the half flush. "Thanks a lot," she said grabbing her bag off the hook and exiting the stall.

"It's no trouble."

Washing her hands in the sink, she thought about the girl in the stall. After a couple minutes Haruhi exited her own stall to wash her hands. And both girls gave each other a friendly smile. That morning Keiko had been questioning whether or not she made the right decision in choosing Ouran. But if someone like her went here than these rich kids couldn't be all bad. Incidentally, Haruhi was thinking the same thing; neither knew the other was just a scholarship student.

…

Haruhi was surprised at the revelation. Of course, she remembered that first day clearly; but she couldn't believe that she hadn't recognized Keiko the moment she saw her and she said so.

"I can't belief I didn't know it was you when you came to the club."

Keiko shrugged. "Didn't expect you to. My face was pretty bashed up," she said.

Meanwhile, the boys were attempting to wrap their heads around how casually Keiko had just brushed over getting into a fight that was bad enough she had to go to the hospital. "Wait, wait, wait –Hold up a sec," Hikaru said halting the conversation. "You broke your wrist on the first day of school?"

"Fractured," the blonde corrected, "a hairline fracture, teeny-tiny –not a big deal. I had to wear a cast for six weeks and compared to the times I broke my arms; it wasn't too bad. Besides, I think you're missing the point of the story."

"Ugh! You're doing that thing again," Eri erupted waving her arms wildly.

"What thing?"

"The thing! Every time you tell a story, you reference some other crazy thing that happened to you and you never explain it." She turned to the confused host club members as she explained, "She did this to me last week. We were at the supermarket and we were talking an upcoming test we had in history. Then out of nowhere she says she didn't get much studying done because her neighbor, Mrs. Ariwara, cornered her on top of her fridge with a fire extinguisher. And that was it! No explanation. No finishing that story. It was just: _'Hey, I got a coupon for this!'_ It's enough to drive a person crazy."

"Okay, one, I didn't think that story needed anymore explanation because you know that Mrs. Ariwara is an 84-yearold grandmother, who we look after during the day because she's so senile that she can't be left alone for more than ten minutes at a time. Crazy things are bound to happen. Two, you never asked about it. But if you must know, Mrs. Ariwara thought I was on fire or something like that, so she grabbed the fire extinguisher and tried to spray me with it. I had to climb on top fridge to get the box of saltwater taffy. It calms her down from her episodes. And three, I can't explain every crazy thing that happens. I'd never get anything done. It's a lot of you-had-to-be-there moments. And when I do explain, people tend to look at me like that…" Keiko gestured to Haruhi's slack-jawed expression.

This bewildered expression was mirrored on everyone's face, except for Eri (who had gotten used to these stories a long time ago). Stories like these were a norm for the Maeda family. Nonetheless, if you didn't know them, it came as quite a shock the first time you heard it. Keiko's father, Naozane, had an abundant source of material for his novels because of this.

Kyoya was the first to recover, opening up his black book and writing something down. Tamaki, for once, was at a loss for words and didn't say anything. But Hikaru and Kaoru quickly digressed into a fit of laughter. "Hahaha. That explains so much!" They snickered

"All I keep seeing is Keiko kneeling on her fridge and throwing taffy at an old woman," Kaoru cried clutching on to his brother. "It's like the old-person-zombie apocalypse."

"That's why she's doesn't react to _tono's_ crazy ideas," Hikaru added breathlessly.

Keiko frowned. Honestly, she should've known this would happen. The twins were known for being unapologetic mockers, heaven knows she seen them tease Tamaki enough to prove it. But up until this point the girl hadn't been on the receiving end of it. This had a lot to do with the fact the she didn't share her home life with the club. It was just like Eri to blurt out something like this. _'Just wait until they come over unannounced and end up meeting the crazy-bat,'_ she thought _'They'd have a field-day.'_

"I think it's nice that you help out someone's grandmother," Mitsukuni chirped.

"Yes, how altruistic of my darling niece to volunteer her time like that," Tamaki agreed loudly.

"It's not entirely without motive," the blonde said, "they do pay us 2000 yen an hour. No one would be willing to volunteer for that much crazy if there wasn't money involved. It's kind of cheap considering she tried bite off one of Ryan's toes, though." She shrugged checking the time on her wrist watch. "Crap. Ri-chan, we gotta go get your brothers. It's 2:30 now."

"Right." The smaller girl nodded standing up she turned to Kyoya, "I suppose we're done here. I won't mention Haruhi's gender, so please excuse me." She started toward the door.

"Not so fast." The Shadow King stopped the two girls in their tracks. "We haven't finished quite yet. You say you won't say anything, but we can't know that for sure. Not without some proof of character of course."

Eri looked back warily. "What do I have to do?"

…

Kyoya sure was a manipulative bastard. Of course, Keiko knew this from the beginning as he had blackmailed both her and Haruhi into the club. But who knew that guy would get Eri into a cosplay costume? She certainly didn't expect it, albeit she'd should've guessed that he would. It was just a Kyoya-thing to do.

The blonde adjusted the strap under her chin holding the costume's hat to her head, then sighed. "Ri-chan come out of the dressing room, would you. It can't be any worse than what I'm wearing."

That statement, while true, didn't persuade the other girl to exit the changing room. If anything it only made Eri more adamant about not letting anyone see her. You see, the two girls had nearly identical costumes; each an unflattering heap of fabric and felt assembled to into giant cupcakes. Keiko was grudgingly given the chocolate with bright pink icing and a red and white striped wrapper with whipped cream hat and a bright red cherry. And Eri, even more grudgingly, was forced into the vanilla with the light blue icing, a blue and white stripped wrapper, and sporting the same whipped cream hat. It was unclear whose idea it was, but Keiko suspected that Honey-sempai had more pull in the decision-making process than he let on.

"No, no, no. I'm not coming out there," Eri called back, "You may have been desensitized to these things because of Kazumi, but I'm not. I know I look like an idiot."

Keiko sighed again. "And you don't think I don't?" She wondered. "I feel like an idiot too. But believe me, you're only making it harder on yourself. Just give into it, stop fighting… _I don't know why I'm quoting a rapist._ " She mumbled the last bit under her breath, then turned towards the door to the clubroom as Tamaki popped his head in.

"Is she still not out yet?" He asked. "The customers are getting impatient."

"Well what do you expect? It's vanilla," Keiko said putting a hand on her hip and gesturing to the mass of white curtains. "She won't come out of the changing room. I'd love to run up to random strangers telling them to 'eat me' or chasing down Honey-sempai and yelling at him for eating my 'family'. But she's being stubborn."

Tamaki stepped into the room and glanced between her and the curtain, curiously. "You seem chirper today," he observed.

"Yeah well, I found 1,000 yen in the couch cushions this morning…kind of put me in a good mood," she told him as if that explained anything, then waddled over to the curtains. "Okay, Eri, I'm giving you to the count of three to come out or I'm going to drag you out. One…"

"–Okay, fine!" The girl yelled shoving the curtains aside and stomping angrily, a difficult feat in itself, over to the counter where a tray full of different colored cupcakes sat. She picked up the tray, spun on her heels and faced the two blondes. Her face was flushed with anger and embarrassment; though mostly embarrassment. "Let's get this over with."

Tamaki looked the smaller girl over. The cupcake costume was a little too big as it had been originally intended for Haruhi and Eri was at least a head shorter. Of course, Haruhi couldn't wear such a thing as it would surely give away her true gender. It was truly ingenious of Kyoya to get Eri to be her replacement. Her petite stature and babyish face, similar to Mitsukuni's, made her the perfect candidate and she gave off the air of innocence that the creators had intended.

Contrariwise, Keiko emitted a certain level of class and maturity that the other girl didn't. It was a difficult thing to pull off in that costume. How she managed it, Tamaki hadn't a clue. Although if he had to guess, he'd say it might have had something to with the fact that the blonde hadn't fought them as much; taking everything in stride and even with a hint of enthusiasm. Tamaki could almost say that she seemed to be enjoying it.

"You know, Sasaki-hime, that costume really is quite fetching on you," the older boy told the burnet, genuinely surprised by the fact.

Some of the anger seemed to leech out of the small girl's face at the comment. Looking towards the floor, she wondered how he could actually believe what he was saying, though she could tell that he did. Eri had even started to feel a little better about the whole situation, at least until Keiko spoke.

"Yeah, blue is really your color." Now while Tamaki was completely sincere in his compliment, Keiko's comment was laced with sarcasm. And Eri, having known her her whole life, knew that the blonde was teasing her. Thankfully, she knew just what to say to shut her up.

"Do I need to show you a mirror?"

This little interaction seemed to fly over Tamaki's head. And the older boy quickly snapped into action, reverting back to his princely-character. "Well, come on, ladies," he said leading them out the door. "Let's not keep the beautiful princesses waiting any longer."

The Host Club was in full swing when they stepped into the main room. Haruhi was charming the girls at her table with her honest, straightforward compliments. The twins were entertaining their guests with stories of mischief they got up to as kids. And Kyoya, no surprise, was off by himself working on his laptop.

Keiko idly scanned the room, noticing immediately the lack of a certain third-year duo. She would've thought Mitsukuni would be first in line for the cupcakes, and yet he was oddly enough not there. What she did see though was two students standing by the entrance, which wouldn't had been unusual, except they were male and one was dressed in a middle school uniform while the other was clothed in pair of gym shorts and a tee-shirt with soccer cleats.

Eri noticed these two students just about as quickly as Keiko did. But she had an entirely different reaction. Keiko was just about to wave and call the two over, however Eri stopped that by all but throwing the tray of cupcakes into her hands. "Oh hell no! What are my brothers doing here?" She broke out of Tamaki's grasp and hurriedly ducked –as hurriedly as a person can when dressed as a giant cupcake –behind Keiko. "They can't see me like this."

"S-Sasaki-hime?" Tamaki sputtered, bewildered by the unusual behavior.

"Yukine probably heard about the free cupcakes," the blonde mused, "you know how big a sweet-tooth he has. What's the big deal anyways? Why are you ducking behind me?"

"They can't see me in this costume," she repeated, "I'm already hanging on to their respect by a thread, if they see me dressed like this it's gone. You don't understand, they put you on a pedestal. Naoki calls me sis and Yukine hasn't started that yet and he not going to start now."

Keiko looked like she was about to laugh. "Well in his defense, you guys are only a year apart."

"This isn't funny, Kei-chan." She hissed. "Have they seen us yet?"

Keiko rolled her eyes and looked at the two boys. "Nope…wait no, now they have," she said as Yukine turned instantly spotting her.

The boy smiled, his face stretching into a cheerful grin. Of the two, Yukine was the youngest and it showed. His boyish features made him look a lot younger than he was and with his happy-go-lucky attitude and an endless supply of energy he resembled another certain Lolita-type. To be honest, if it weren't for the dark hair and eyes that all the Sasaki kids had, Keiko could almost think that they were brothers.

Naoki, on the other hand, was 180-degree flip from his younger brother. He didn't speak much and smiled even less. And it was rumored that he wasn't someone you wanted to make mad. His temper, though most were fortunate enough to never see it, was truly frightening as Keiko had learned personally. And because of his rather quiet nature, he seemed a lot older than he was.

"Ne-san!" He gave far more energy to his wave than was needed. Then happily walked, almost skipping, over to where Keiko was standing with Naoki following languidly behind.

"Hey, Yuki, Nao." Keiko greeted them, "What you, guys doing in the high school section of campus?"

"We heard ne-chan was helping out here and giving out free cupcakes…" the boy trailed off looking at the tray of multicolored cupcakes. Keiko got the hint and handed a cupcake to each of the boys.

"Oh, sempai," she turned to the Host King, "this is Sasaki Naoki and Yukine, Ri-chan's _otoutos._ Guys, this is Tamaki-sempai. He's the club's president."

Naoki nodded mildly interested, but Yukine enthusiastically shook the blond's hand. " _Hajimemashite, sempai!_ You're a _konketsuji_ like ne-san, huh? That's cool. So are you English or European?"

"I'm French."

"Yuki how many time have I told you that can't just walk up to someone and call them a halfer?" Keiko scolded. "Especially, that term. It's beyond rude."

Yukine had the sense to look apologetic. "Sorry, Ne-san. I didn't mean anything by it, Sempai."

Tamaki gave the younger boy a friendly smile. "It's alright. I get that a lot actually."

"Ne-san does too."

Now, keep in mind that through this whole conversation Eri had not moved from her position behind Keiko. But it wasn't until this point that two boys actually noticed. Naoki was the first to say something about it. "Hey, Kei why is Sis ducking behind you?" He wondered peering over the girl's shoulder.

Eri winced.

"That's a good question, but the real question is why she still doing it if she knows she's been seen," Keiko replied. She didn't shy or look away from the glare that the smaller girl was sending her. Taking a side step out of the way, Keiko merely adjusted the strap under her chin again.

"Oh hey ne-chan, I didn't see you there." Yukine greeted.

Naoki scoffed. "Don't see how you couldn't with that costume. What did the witch bake you two in her oven?" He said jokingly.

"Shut up."

Naoki raised a brow challengingly. "Or what are you going to ice me?"

"That's it!" Eri said snatching one of the cupcakes and preparing to throw it at her irksome little brother. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Keiko grabbed the girl's wrist just as she was about to let the bake good fly.

"Don't you dare. Remember, black onions…" she whispered then turned to Naoki, "And you, stop teasing your sister. She doesn't like being the Bundt of the joke."

"Keiko!"

"I know. I'm sorry. Couldn't resist," she said. "Here…" she put the tray back in her hands, "go start passing these out. You don't have any more excuses now. I'm going to get the other tray."

And with that said and that little hurtle overcome, the host club then carried on as normal. Eri did manage to pass out all the cupcakes despite her embarrassment. Of course, her siblings teased her about it on their way out. But with the proof of character completed, Kyoya trusted that she would keep Haruhi's secret.

Still, Keiko suspected it was only the beginning. Once you participated in the Host Club, there was no going back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I kind of feel like this chapter was a kind of all over the place. I wasn't really sure where I was going with this one as I kind of just threw Eri finding out about Haruhi's gender in the last one on a whim. I guess this is more of like a transitional chapter as from here on out the storylines will be taking place more off campus. Up until now the majority of this story has been taking place at Ouran Academy, but I really want to start including some more of Keiko's home life and work and just the general craziness that ensues.
> 
> I'm been slowly developing a whole cast of original characters that make up Keiko's world. Mrs. Ariwawa will definitely be making multiple appearances later on as well as some other neighbors and fellow employees at the diner and Hideki and his family... there's a lot here guys. I don't know when I'll be able to get the next chapter up, but just know that it will be up as soon as I finish writing it.
> 
> As always leave kudos, bookmark, subscribe and leave your thought or critiques in the comments. I'll talk to you guys soon.
> 
> (P.S. I really think the song 'Make a Mess' by Matt and Kim would be a great anime opening, if this were an anime. It's kind of the song that I listen to a lot to get inspiration for these chapters.)


	9. Proposing a Compromise

One of the things Keiko loved about Ouran Academy was the classes. Strange, she knew, especially considering how much she used to get in trouble at school. Although despite that, she never hated learning; she just hated the homework. The thing that made Ouran different from her middle school was the flexibility it gave its students to choose their classes. It allowed to them to make their own schedule and start working toward their major in college. And with the best teachers and staff it made the Academy standout above the rest.

Itoh-sensei taught her fourth period class, Advanced English & Creative Writing. He was a young man, barely out of university, with a love of English literature and boyish charm that made him very popular with the female teachers and students. And he was also Keiko’s favorite teacher. Unlike her fellow classmates, the girl didn’t sign up for the class because the teacher was quote-unquote ‘hot’ but because she genuinely wanted to take the class.

Growing up, Keiko never like her English courses because they were too easy. Her mom made sure that all her kids could speak English as fluently as she could; being a born English speaker, it wasn’t long before they were speaking English better than their teachers. What Keiko liked about Itoh-sensei was that at no point did she feel that she spoke better English than he did. Itoh-sensei had moved with his family to England at a young age, and much like Keiko, grew up speaking English around native-born speakers.

They would often joke about how when he spoke he sounded so British, while Keiko had distinct Americanisms to her speech.

“ _I dwelt alone_  
In a world of moan,  
And my soul was a stagnant tide  
Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride –  
Till the yellow-haired young Eulalie became my smiling bride…”

Keiko listened intently as Itoh-sensei read one of Edgar Allen Poe’s poems to the class. There was a sigh from her seatmate, and the blonde glanced over briefly to see the older girl resting her head in her hand and staring dreamily at the teacher. _‘Good grief,’_ she thought, _‘she’s not even trying to hide it today.’_

_“–Ah, less, less bright_  
The stars of the night  
Than the eyes of the radiant girl,  
And never a flake  
That the vapor can make  
With moon-tints of purple and pearl  
Can vie with modest Eulalie’s most unregarded curl—  
Can compare with the bright-eyed Eulalie’s most humble and careless curl…”

Her seatmate, Koizumi Akane from class 2-A, was the unofficial president of the Itoh-sensei fanclub. And as a result, Keiko had to deal with a lot of one-sided pining. As far as she could tell, the other girl had no interest in the class. But only signed up for it because Itoh-sensei was teaching it and because it was 30 minutes longer than the standard English class. Of the twenty-five students, there were only a handful of guys present with the rest being giggling love-sick fangirls. Keiko fell into neither of these two groups; belonging to the third and most elusive group, consisting of her and fellow first-year student Reiko Kanazuki from class D, who took the assignments seriously despite being the right demographic.

_“–Now Doubt –now Pain_  
Come never again,  
For her soul gives me sigh for sigh  
And all day long  
Shines bright and strong  
Astarte’ within the sky,  
While ever to her dear Eulalie upturns her matron eye—  
While ever to her young Eulalie upturns her violet eye.”

Itoh-sensei smiled sheepishly when the girls in the room erupted into a round of applause. “Thank you,” he said. “Now, your assignment for this week is to write a short-story 800 to 1200 words based off a poem by Poe. I read Eulalie as an example, but you are free to choose any poem you see fit. I really look forward to seeing what you guys come up with.  Also I’ll be handing back your graded papers as you leave.”

Keiko took her time packing up her books into her shoulder bag, figuring there would be a bottle neck to get to the door. She had a free-period so she saw no need to try to rush out the door. She’d probably go hang out in the library until her next class, maybe get started on that short-story and figure out what poem she was going to use.

By the time she stood up, half the students had already left.

“Ah, Maeda-san,” the man said handing over the stack of papers for her last assignment, “you did very well on this last one. The characters are extremely well done.”

“Thank you, Sensei.” The girl smiled. Her eyes flickered down to said paper seeing the red marked 98/100. She lost two points for a couple grammatical errors it says.

“There was something I wanted to ask you ask about,” Itoh-sensei continued, “You see, I have a student in my Standard class who’s struggling a bit. I suggested he get a tutor from my Advanced class, but I know you’re both in the same club after school. So I was wondering if you’d be interested in something like that?”

“Who is it?” Keiko wondered. She had trouble picturing any of her other club members having enough trouble in class that they needed a tutor. Kyoya was meticulous with his school work as was Haruhi. Tamaki, contrary his outward appearance, was no village idiot when it came to school work and he would be the last person she’d think having trouble with a language class. Mori-sempai was a big history-buff and she remembers seeing him reading biographies in English and Honey-sempai often had the term prodigy associated with him, so she assumed he was no slacker. That just left the twins. Kaoru she knew was at near the top of their French class. Hikaru maybe?

“Hitachiin, Hikaru from class 1-A,” he explained. “I know you two are friends, so I thought you might be the best person for the job.”

Keiko thought ‘friendly’ was a better description, but she didn’t say that thought out loud. “I guess I could. It would be convenient with us being in the same club,” she said, “I’ll talk to him about it later.”

“Alright, have a nice rest of your day, Maeda-san.”

“You too, Sensei.”

…

When Keiko walked into Music Room 3 that afternoon, she was met with an increasingly familiar sight. It only took her a couple days before she’d gotten used to seeing her blond-haired sempai sulking in the corner like a child. So she barely paid him any notice as she walked by, murmuring a quite hello as she headed back to the prep room.

Tossing her bag on one of the extra sofas, that doubled as Honey-sempai’s nap spot, she began to fiddle with the fancy coffee machine. Another thing she learned was that while the majority of the hosts were partial to the Commoners’ Coffee, Kyoya-sempai was not. So she set about make a pot of strong black coffee; figuring that while she was making some for herself it wouldn’t hurt to make some for him too. After all, staying on Kyoya’s good side ensured that he was less likely to raise her debt like he did with Haruhi.

She opened the cupboard where the tea sets were kept, rising up on her tippy-toes so she could reach. “Dammit,” she hissed when the china proved to be just out of reach, “why does everyone insist on pushing things to the very back?”

Bracing her hand on the counter, the girl tried to lift herself up to give her a couple extra centimeters; albeit it was still too far. It wasn’t like she was especially short; only 163 cm (5’4 ft if you’re not metric), which in Japan was average height. But everyone else, with the exception of Honey-sempai, had at least five centimeters on her. “Come on…just a little further…”

“Do you need help?” A voice asked.

Keiko glanced over her shoulder. There, in the doorway, stood one of the twins. From this distance, Keiko wasn’t quite sure which one it was. But based on the question and his mannerism, she’d bet that it was likely Kaoru who was standing there. “Yeah, if you don’t mind…”

The red-head nodded, stepping forward to grab one of the tea cups. Keiko shifted out of the way as his torso brushed against her shoulder. “Here,” he handed her one of the cups.

Keiko turned taking the cup from his hands. “ _Arigatou_ ,” she said looking up to his face. Doing so, she was only more secure in the assumption that this was Kaoru.

For the past two weeks, she started to notice a couple things about the twins. For example, Kaoru always played the _uke_ in their brotherly-love act, while Hikaru played the dominate _seme._ In addition to that, Hikaru was usually the first to come up with their schemes when it came to teasing Haruhi or Tamaki. But what really set the two brothers apart was their eyes. Hikaru always had a little more spark of something that would suggest he was up to something; a spark that Kaoru was missing when not around his brother. And it was that missing spark that made her think he was Kaoru.

“Do you want a cup?” She offered grabbing the brewed pot of coffee. “I was going to give some to Kyoya-sempai too, so if you don’t mind grabbing another one…”

“Sure.” The boy nodded retrieving two more cups from the cupboard.

Keiko poured a generous amount into the relatively dainty teacups. Then she plunked a couple sugar cubes, not before popping one in her mouth, into the three cups. Pouring a little creamer into two of them, while she left hers black. “Here you go, Hitachiin-san.” She handed the cup over to the boy.

He thanked her softly before taking a sip of the hot drink. “Whoa,” he reeled back looking down at the cup, “that’s strong.” He had gotten so used to the watered-down taste of instant coffee that he’d forgotten how flavorful and robust actual coffee could be.

Keiko hummed in agreement, “It’s not coffee unless it’s strong.” She took a sip, savoring the bitter taste. To be honest, Keiko knew she drank a little too much coffee. While most people drank like one or two, she’d have anywhere between six to eight cups in a day. It definitely wasn’t healthy and she knew that. “So where’s your other half?” she asked him curiously leaning against the counter.

The boy shrugged. “Hikaru got held up talking to Itoh-sensei,” he explained.

Keiko tilted her head curiously and hummed. She already knew why, so her interested expression was more to do with that she had actually guessed right. Knowing for sure this was Kaoru, she took a moment to scan the other boy’s features for any unique physical traits. There were none, at least none that she could see when not standing next to his brother.

It was frustrating. If they wanted to be told apart, then why did they try so hard to be mirror images of one another? She and Kazumi were never like this. And personally, Keiko couldn’t fathom what could’ve happened to them to make them like this.

“Hey, can I ask you something kind of personal?” The girl said tentatively.

Kaoru looked at her and nodded. “Sure. There’s no guarantee that I’ll answer, though.”

She’d figured that would be his response, but she decided to ask her question any ways. If he didn’t want to answer, then he didn’t need to. But maybe, just maybe it would get him thinking. “Why don’t you want people to tell you and your brother apart?”

“Excuse me?”

She didn’t look up to see the boy’s surprised face, finding her cup of coffee fairly interesting at the moment.

“If you really wanted to be told apart, you’d put more effort into being different. But you don’t, so it’s logical to assume that you both don’t want anyone to win the ‘ _Which One of Us is Hikaru’_ game,” she reasoned. “So why is that?”

Kaoru didn’t know how to answer that. Besides Tamaki, she was the only other person to ever figure that out. But Keiko was the first person to ever ask why. No one ever asked why. They didn’t try to understand the twins reasoning behind being the same. So when he was asked, he didn’t quite know how to explain it.

“Growing up,” he started, “people confused us a lot. But we never made any effort to be different, and often we liked switching places to play pranks on people…”

“You still do that now,” Keiko remarked.

Kaoru nodded. “You’re not wrong,” he said, “I guess our reasoning was that if people didn’t try to get to know us, there was no point in making it easy for them.”

The blonde looked pensive as she considered that. “But,” she replied, “if you keep people at arms-length, how can they ever have a chance at telling you two apart? It’s an impossible standard and the chances of you both finding someone who can tell you apart is slim.”

That response hit deeper than Keiko could’ve imagined. It was the first time Kaoru actually really thought of it from that perspective. He knew she was right, but he didn’t like it. Most people rarely like having their problems brought to their attention like that. “Well what about you?” He asked a bit abruptly, “Why do you keep people at arms-length.”

Keiko shifted uncomfortable having the question thrown back in her face. It’s not like she didn’t expect it though. It wasn’t like she went out of her way to hide it and she did start this conversation.

“Part of it has to do with privacy. I don’t usually share things with people I’ve only just met,” she explained, “The other reason is…” she trailed off swallowing a lump forming in her throat. This was something she hadn’t said out loud, to anyone, not even herself. Why she was saying it to Kaoru of all people was beyond her. “–is it hurts too much. When you let people in and they leave, it hurts. I don’t like that pain. But there’s no escaping it because eventually everyone leaves.”

Kaoru understood part of what she was saying. It did hurt when people you let in leave. He knew just how much it hurt. What he didn’t understand though was the last part. _‘What does she mean everyone leaves? Why is she making that face; almost as if she were about to cry?’_ He wondered.

“Hey, are you…” he trailed off not quite sure what to say.

Luckily, he didn’t need to as Keiko snapped out of whatever trance she was in. “I’m fine,” she said mustering up a weak smile, “Thank you, Kaoru-kun. For answering my question, or at least trying to. I’m going to take this coffee to Kyoya-sempai before it gets cold.”

He watched her leave, still confused. _‘That’s the first time she called me by my name…’_

Keiko sighed internally to herself once she left the prep room. She really shouldn’t had said that. It wasn’t right to put her problems on other people. ‘ _Best just keep things those thing to yourself.’_

Looking around the room, she spotted Kyoya working on his laptop by the windows. The older boy looked as if he was engrossed in what he was doing. So she didn’t say anything as she set the cup of coffee in front of him. The noise, though was enough to alert him to her presence.

Kyoya stopped his typing and glanced down at the cup before his eyes flickered to Keiko. “What’s this?” He asked.

“Coffee. You looked like you needed it,” she replied. He looked back at the cup again. “Don’t worry. It’s not instant.”

Kyoya relaxed at that. “Thank you,” he said, picking up the cup and drinking some. For once, he seemed genuine so Keiko smiled and nodded.

“You’re welcome.”

Silence fell over the two and Keiko shifted her feet. Kyoya set the teacup back on its saucer. “Was there something else?” He asked curiously.

“Well, actually yes.” She admitted pulling out a chair and plopping herself down. Her own cup of coffee was placed on the table in front of her, but she didn’t touch it. “I wanted to talk to you about this a couple days ago, but I didn’t get the chance to… what with my passing out and you guys having to take me home. Thanks again for that. And then there was the flower viewing reception and the physical exams, so I was a little preoccupied to try to bring it up again…” she knew that if she didn’t stop rambling and get to the point Kyoya would lose all interest. “Anyways, what I’m saying is that I won’t be able to come to club tomorrow because my basketball team is playing a game against Lobelia Academy. It’s the last game of the season.”

Kyoya nodded. “I was already aware of this, Keiko-san.”

The girl was surprised for a moment, until she remembered this was Kyoya that she was speaking too. Of course, he would know everything that was going on in her life. “But as long as we’re on the topic,” he continued closing his laptop so he could fully look at her, “there was something I wished to discuss with you as well.”

Keiko was a little uneasy with how he was looking at her. It reminded her of that day they first met when he was evaluating her worth. It was such a cool calculating look and Keiko hated it because there was no telling what he was thinking or about to say.

“I think it’d be best if we lay everything out in the open. I’m aware of your home situation; I know that it’s just you and your brother and that you have a job after school in order to help cover living costs. Your brother doesn’t make enough from his artwork for it to be viable income so most of the bills fall on you. And so you work anywhere from twenty to thirty hours a week to make up for it; leaving you with very little free time,” he said.

“Well, if you know all that then you know that I can’t keep coming to club every day,” she mumbled.

“Yes, it seems so.” He agreed, “It would be more trouble for us if you continued on the way you have been. It was just lucky that you didn’t faint when we had guests or we would’ve had to close down the club resulting in a loss of profits for the day. So I’m proposing a compromise. In exchange for you coming in, let’s just say three days a week when you don’t have practices, I want you to start hosting customers.”

Keiko didn’t quite know what to think about that. He wanted her to host? But she was a girl. It’d be strange having a girl sit with other girls, unless… _‘Oh no. He’s not saying what I think his is, right?’_

“Are you serious?” She asked. “You want to pimp me out? Absolutely not.”

Kyoya opened up his laptop, fingers moving quickly across the keyboard. “It wouldn’t be anything like that, Keiko-san. This isn’t that type of club and despite what you may think it wouldn’t be much different from what you’re doing now. All you would need to do is talk to guys; nothing more, nothing less,” he told her. “I ran the numbers and since you joined the club the number of new customers has increased by fifteen percent. If you started hosting, then that number could easily double.”

“So you’re basically just trying to make an extra buck,” she sighed.

“More or less,” he replied not even trying to deny it. “With the way Tamaki blows through money, this club could use all the extra funds we can get. Besides this is mutually beneficial to both of us.”

Keiko couldn’t deny that the offer wasn’t tempting. Hell, on any normal day she’d jump at the chance without question. But there was something stopping her. _‘What would Hideki say about this?’_ She wondered. He definitely wouldn’t like it, no he’d hate it. And no matter what she told herself that it was just to pay offer her debt, she would still feel like on some level that she was cheating.

“Can I have time to think about it?”

“Sure. I’ll give you until after the game to make your decision,” he said eyes leaving the computer. She didn’t have any designations until then anyways. Although, there was no doubt in Kyoya’s mind that she wouldn’t say no. They both knew that she couldn’t keep working so hard.

…

It was much later that evening that Keiko made up her mind about what to do. It simply made more sense to take Kyoya’s offer than to have to keep cutting into her very limited time. The only thing she was really worried about was how to go about explaining this to her brother and Hideki.

Up until now, she hadn’t told either one about the debt she’d acquired. She didn’t want them to worry. Although, now it looked like she would finally have to explain everything. _‘Joy…’_

 She really wasn’t looking forward to this conversation.

From experience, Keiko knew that the best time to break any bad news was after a heavy meal of delicious food. The extra carbs put people in a state of relaxation so they were less likely to react negatively to the news. So because she didn’t have to work that night, Keiko set about cooking up a storm the minute she got home from school.

First off, she set about boiling some penne pasta in a large pot of water, then chopping up various vegetables to go into her Great-Gran’s special pasta sauce, using the extra to make a salad. She flipped through a recipe book as she waited for the noodles to cook. “What kind of dessert would be good?” She wondered out loud. “Ryan and Hideki both have a pretty big sweet tooth. But if I make it too sweet I won’t end up eating it. I also don’t want to spend a couple hours baking a pie just for them to eat it all in ten minutes…”

She flipped another page and stopped. “Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies…” she read as she scanned through the list of ingredients. It looked like she had almost everything on the list. Of course she’d have to substitute the dark chocolate with M&Ms, but other than that there were no substitutions. And with these she could make a couple dozen that would last for a couple days if not a week.

Keiko was in the process of rolling the cookie dough into palm-sized balls, placing them on an oiled cookie sheet, then smashing them down with a fork when there was a knock on the front door. She grabbed a dish towel to dry her hands after rinsing them off and walked over to the door to answer it. “Hey,” she smiled in greeting, stepping out of the way so Hideki could come in.

The older boy smiled back. “Hi, sorry I’m late. _Oji-san_ and I were replacing an oil seal and it took longer than I thought to clean up the mess,” he said.

“It’s okay Hideki,” Keiko answered. “I understand how it goes. Beside _Ni-chan_ is not even here yet so don’t worry about it.” She closed the door behind him and walked back to the kitchen with him on her heels. “Do you want anything to drink? We got water or sweet tea…”

“I’ll have some sweet tea.” He said walking over to the fridge and pulling out a half-full pitcher of black tea. Hideki had been at the Maeda’s house enough time to know where everything was. “Do you want any?”

Keiko held up a glass of tea she had sitting on the kitchen island. “Already have some, but thanks for the offer.” She set the cup back down and set about stirring the pasta noodles as they boiled on the stove so they wouldn’t stick to the pot. It wouldn’t be long now before they were cooked.

During this time, Hideki had seen it fit to slip up behind her leaning over her shoulder to looked at the food. “That smells incredible,” he breathed tickling her ear. “So you’re making Italian?”

She nodded quietly. “Yeah it’s my Great-Gran’s recipe. Did you know she was half-Italian? I have this old recipe book chocked full of old family recipes from the old country,” she told him, “This is one of my favorites.”

“This is your great-grandmother on your Mom’s side, right?”

“Yeah,” she chirped, “from what I’ve been told she was an amazing cook –like gourmet chief good. She could blow that guy from Hell’s Kitchen out of the water –and from the recipes I’ve made that’s not an exaggeration. In fact, that apple pie I baked last month was one of hers.”

Hideki’s eyes flickered to his girlfriend’s beaming smile as she talked about her favorite recipes. She always got like this when it came to food. And he couldn’t deny that it wasn’t absolutely adorable when she did. He looked at her in her baggy sweatpants and loose Rolling Stones tee-shirt with a black apron slung over her neck and secured at the waist finding the relaxed appearance only added to the cute factor. A streak of flour marred one of her rosy cheeks and –without really thinking about it – he leaned forward and pressed his lips to the spot letting his tongue lick the flour from her cheek.

Keiko froze, her face flushing a pretty shade of pink, and sputtered, “W-what was that for?”

Hideki laughed at her expression. “You had flour on your cheek,” he explained taking a step back, giving her some breathing room. She turned and looked at him hand coming up to touch where his mouth had just been. Her face was still a little flushed, however her eyes crinkled a bit at the corners as she laughed disbelievingly.

“You could’ve just told me and I would’ve wiped it off.”

“I could’ve,” he agreed, “But then again. It wouldn’t have been half as fun.”

She laughed again and grabbed him by his shirt collar. “You’re incorrigible,” she told him. Then leaning up and planting her lips firmly against his. He slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her body more firmly against his and deepening the kiss. One of Keiko’s hands came up and gripped gently at the hair at the back of his head causing him to let out a deep groan. She giggled at this, a breathless sigh really, before he delved deeper; slipping his tongue past her lips and tasting the sweet tea she’d been drinking and something tart and spicy that he could only describe as her.

Then as quickly as the kiss had started, it was over with the audible clearing of a throat. The two broke apart a soon as they became aware of another person in the room and turned to see Ryan standing by the kitchen island carrying two brown paper bags full of all manner of supplies from the hardware store for his next project. They had been so caught up in each other that neither had even heard him walk in. The older man had an unreadable expression on his face, although Hideki could swear that he was slightly glaring at him.

Keiko recovered first, stepping out of Hideki’s arms. “ _Okaeri, Onii-chan!_ Dinner’s almost ready if you want to wash up,” she said. She walked over to him and took the paper bags out of his arms shooting him a meaningful look and mouthing the words ‘be nice’. Then she turned back to her boyfriend who hadn’t moved from his spot in front of the stove. “Hideki do you mind stirring the sauce so it doesn’t burn and draining the noodles.”

“Yeah, sure. No problem,” he mumbled clearing his throat awkwardly.

She disappeared down the hallway towards her brother’s room to deposit the bags; thus leaving the two men standing in the kitchen. The second she was gone, Ryan’s face dropped all pretenses. “I see you two are getting pretty cozy, Hideki-kun. You know that’s the second time I’ve walked in on you two,” he drawled leaning alongside the counter and fixing the boy with a withering stare. “We’re not going to have to review the rules again, are we?”

Hideki swallowed thickly shaking his head. “N-no, Sir!”

“Good,” Ryan chuckled reverting to his typically happy-go-lucky persona as Keiko walked back into the room. “Hey Kei, are you making cookies too?” He asked seeing the one-and-a-half finished cookie sheets and two empty ones standing by.

The blonde glanced between her brother’s smiling face and Hideki’s pale expression, inwardly sighing. “Yeah, I decided to. If you want to help me put them on the cookie sheets, you can,” she replied, “just wash your hands first.” Her eyes flickered back over to her boyfriend, sending him a worried look to ask if he was okay. He quickly responded with a somewhat shaky smile and turned his attention back to the two pots on the stove. She watched him for a second longer as he took the pot of noodles off the stove to strain them, then turned her attention back to the cookies she had been working on.

_‘Guys…’_ she sighed.

With the three of them working together, it wasn’t long until all the food was prepared and sitting on the kitchen table. The conversation was a bit awkward at times –mostly when Hideki and Ryan had to speak to each other –however, Keiko managed to keep things amicable by steering the conversation away from what she considered dangerous territory of what was going on when Ryan came home. It wasn’t like that was going anywhere –Keiko would’ve made sure that it stopped right where it was –and that wasn’t because she didn’t like Hideki or that she didn’t think about that. It was just an incredibly stupid idea. She knew that at her age, hormones wildly out of control, she wasn’t mature enough to make rational decisions about sex; not to mention that birth control didn’t always work and she couldn’t jeopardize her future like that. School was more important. It had to be more important.

So they talked while they ate. Although it wasn’t until Keiko was pulling the cookies out of the oven, that Ryan finally brought up topic for which this dinner was about. He’d suspected something was up the minute he walked through the door and saw Hideki there and that feeling only became more resolute when he saw the cookies. It was a known fact that Keiko hated baking –like she really hated it. The only time she would she would ever bake was for special occasions, like holidays or birthdays, and whenever she had something to tell them and didn’t want people getting too upset by it. Putting down his fork, Ryan leaned back in his chair and fixed his sister with a serious look.

“So what’s this about, Kei?” He asked.

The blonde was in the process of putting the cookie sheets on a cooling racks; avoiding his gaze. She shrugged. “What do you mean? Can’t a girl cook dinner without getting the third-degree?” Her voice entirely unconvincing as she tried to be nonchalant. And Keiko knew it too. “Okay, you got me.”

She maneuvered her way through the kitchen, retrieving a metal spatula from one of the drawers and using it to slide the cookies onto a plate. “There is a reason I decided to make dinner tonight…”

“You don’t say?” Hideki mumbled, knowing something was up too.

“–I wanted to talk to you both about something that happened at school today,” she started.

Immediately, Ryan’s face morphed into a concerned, almost panicked look. “Why? What happened? You’re not having trouble with your classes, right? You can always ask me if you need a tutor,” he offered before another thought occurred to him and he started flailing his arms around wildly. “Or is it something else – _gasp –_ Oh I knew it. You’re being bullied!”

The blonde whirled around with a confused look. “What? No. No. No. It’s nothing like that,” she said. “Though that does remind me, I’m going to be tutor a guy in English –that’s not what I needed to tell you guys, although they’re kind of connected. It’s about that club I joined.”

“The butler café?” Hideki replied.

She placed the fresh plate of cookie on the table and retook her seat across from Hideki. “Yeah. Well it’s kind of been cutting into the time I have to do homework, so I negotiated with Kyoya-sempai to let me come in three days a week instead of five,” Keiko explained snatching on of the cookies to nibble on. It was good, not too sweet.

“That’s good,” Ryan commented. “You’ve been working too hard.”

Keiko relaxed a bit at her brother’s words, however she knew she wasn’t in the clear just yet. Her eyes flickered back over to Hideki as he picked up a cookie and popped it in his mouth. “These cookies are good,” he said.

“Thanks.” Then she continued on speaking, “In exchange, they want to see if I’d be any good at being a…” She paused, trying to consider how best to say the word hostess without having to say the word host. “–a maid. Right now they have me acting as a kind of busboy/waitress and they want to see if maybe they can expand their clientele to the other fifty-percent of the student body.” She risked glancing up and looking at the two men sitting at the table. Ryan’s face was thoughtful, a tad curious, as he waited for her to finish talking; however, it was Hideki’s deadpanned expression that had her shifting uncomfortably in her seat. She couldn’t quite tell what he was thinking; albeit it was anything but happy.

“So what are you saying exactly?” Hedeki asked cautiously.

The blonde retrieved another cookie, not raising it to her lips, and rolled it between her fingers. “ _Theywantmetostartcateringtoguy_ s,” she mumbled so quickly that the words all ran together in a jumbled heap. Nevertheless, it didn’t matter because Hideki had caught every word.

For once, Ryan seemed to share the younger man’s feelings on the subject. His hazel eyes, darkening dangerously. “Just what kind of club is this, Keiko?” He certainly didn’t approve of his baby sister catering to guys –hell, he didn’t really like her waiting on guys at the diner –but catering! That sounded so suggestive.

Similarly, Hideki was fighting the urge to put his foot down and forbid her from going to that club. He knew that if he tried it, she’d would certainly tear him a new one; because she would be damned if she let anyone (much less her boyfriend) restricted her life like that. Keiko wasn’t like other girls. She wasn’t asking them for permission, she was telling them what she’d already decided. And he knew that if he didn’t try to be open-minded about this, then things would likely escalate.

“It’s not what you’re both thinking! I swear,” she hurriedly explained. “You see, I’d still be doing what I have been, passing out tea and sandwiches and whatnot. It just that now, I going to be passing them out to guys as well. And I’m expected to make polite chitchat with all the students, no matter their gender, so there is really nothing changing. I wouldn’t had agreed to it had it been anything else.”

“It still sounds suspicious,” Ryan remarked candidly. “Are you sure this club is legitimate? What does the advising teacher have to say about it?”

As far as she knew, there was no advising teacher. However, Keiko wasn’t wholly sure on the subject so didn’t want to mislead them. It was something that she’d have to ask Kyoya about. “I haven’t met the teacher advising the club,” she said, “but I’m sure Kyoya-sempai ran it by a school authority first. He’s a very sensible person, so he’d make sure that everything was up to standard.”

Ryan certainly couldn’t argue with that. Having met the young man in question, he was immediately struck by just how sensible and responsible he was. “Alright, I guess I don’t have a problem with it. But I want to come by and see this club sometime,” he said.

“That can be arranged,” she nodded. Then looking over to Hideki, to see what he’d say about it. He still seemed tense, but his eyes had slightly softened as he looked at her. He let out a breath, not quite a sigh, and spoke calmly.

“I trust you, Kei.” Even though, the little green monster on his back told him otherwise.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading the first chapter of this story. I've just recently started reposting some of my fan-fictions on this site, more chapters will be up shortly. :)


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